Probably not. Each read here is a whole 17.5 MB expert file, so the time per read is set by the drive's throughput, not its access latency — 17.5 MB at 7 GB/s is ~2.5 ms, which is what we measure at queue depth 1 on the SN8100s.

What actually moves the barrier is how fast the slowest of 16 concurrent whole-file reads completes: more drives on direct ports, stable tail behaviour under load, and scheduling. Our ladder shows even that with diminishing returns (one drive ≈52% of four, three ≈90%).