Quote:Riders are getting a lot more premium practice now

With (grudging!) respect - WTF is "premium practice"? The IoM is unique (and has been since the real Nurburgring closed) in being close to unlearnable - at least compared to Brands Hatch et al. It is impossible to have too much practice on the Mountain course, but very easy to have too little. I would suspect that this comment comes from a non-racer, or else one who is/was dangerously complacent about his knowledge of the course.
As for "setting up" bikes, I suspect this is much over-esteemed, as the circuit varies so much in the nature of the surfaces, types of bends, gradients and so on that it is virtually impossible to twitch every bit of the overly-complex suspensions, gearings, tyres etc to be right everywhere. Until the day that all the settings automatically adjust by electronic control that resets them constantly as the circuit unfolds the best policy is to get the basics about right, then concentrate on riding the thing to suit! If you know the course, for the changing sections you can adjust the only control that really matters - the throttle!