"And while you guys fire up your 20 L flasks to process a mole of ketone, true believers in the way of Os do that reaction in a 2L flask, and don't care if it runs a overnight or even a whole day."
That may be true, but by the time one makes enough MeAm to process that mole of ketone, Nitro users will be processing their second mole of ketone by then. As for thinner foil, make 5x5 or larger squares intead of 2x2, and wad them up, then do the coffee grinder bit to compress them wads tighter. Also decreasing the HgCl2 amount helps immensely.