Kinda what I figured, but the talking heads in the light electric vehicle community are sold on the legged package so hard that there is no convincing them that SMD FETs can perform at higher power levels.
So far we have found that the HV160 is good for about 6000 to 7000 watts burst on 12s with a low inductance and resistance motor like a hot 3210 Astro. Above that and the ripple voltage starts to get out of hand and things go south after about 200 miles. Things never get warm externally, but the system just doesn't like it.
Regarding the safety issues above 12s- Above 50v electricity will start to arc across dry skin. The amount of wattage available if a battery short happens becomes very dangerous. One of the members here had a bullet plug incident, I think it was 18s.
This is from one small mistake, Thanks for the pic Metallover
There are other instances of burned skin and melted systems. My buddy had an incident on 18s that destroyed his connectors, but luckily didn't spot weld them together and cause further damage. It happened in his car, he is lucky a fire didn't start.