I think that people can tend to get led up blind alleys to do with all sorts of tool provision and work methods. Don't trust manufacturers and retailers too much - remember that they have a vested interest - they are after your money! At the craft and hobby end of the market in particular they are often guilty of cultivating product mystique.
Trouble is, people seem to have a weakness for buying into mystique. The psychology is curious, but we are an advertiser's dream. We are suckers. Mystique, however, ain't reality - it's a sham. It has no place in work. Work can't be fooled.
But we were talking about mitre gauges on saws. They have come down to us from simpler times - there's a slot - and a bar. We hope that one fits the other in a decent fashion (whatever that means!). Maybe there's 6 thou of slop (forgive me but when I talk about thou I'm still in the age of Imperial).
What happens when we use the gauge? We push! Where do we push? We push with our hand about the body of the gauge or to its left. Why? Because we don't want our fingers anywhere near the blade, at least not if we're British and sensible ...
And where is the pressure from the cut? Why, it's back in the other direction. So we push away from us on the left, and the resistance of the cut presses towards us on the right. So the work tends to rotate clockwise, in a fashion that will be fairly uniform, at least whilst the cut is in progress. Say there is 6 thou of sideways slop - but that's over the length of a 300mm bar! I'm no mathematician but that can't amount to much in an angular sense, can it?
And if you care (I do), you can set up the gauge to counteract the miniscule rotation that comes from the slop.
The test is in the results. But no anodising in poncy colours, no profiteering, no mystique. Let's go to work!
Of course if the stock is long, you'll be using a sliding table, not a mitre gauge, won't you ...?