That's a fair critique. I consider aggregate gain. The total of all uphills to a point. Uphill taxes a body in a particular way, I just like to anticipate how taxing and where. Hence the granularity.
The first time I did CM-KG in a day I looked at the base numbers thinking 3900+ feet gain (10700' at the Gap less 6800' at Crescent). I was shocked at the sun exposed 10-11 miles to bearpaw and how the numerous up/downs taxed me before I even got to the big climb past Hamilton and Precipice. AT the gap I was drained beyond the mileage i had done... that's because my body had experienced 6.4k of gain, 60% more than I was expecting.
