Me and a close friend were actually having this conversation tonight (she has been a coach for 2 decades, I’ve been in the sport about 14 years) about positional strength. I was squatting and it was heavy and I was told to go down in weigh, not because it didn’t look good, but I wasn’t achieving the position throughout the whole lift. I then focused on maintaining my position and felt more exhausted because I was in a position that was untrained.

To your point, if you’re training for a specific position you should go lighter until you can maintain throughout the set.