Can't really answer your "Question" directly - a lot to unpack there,
But more a progression of anecdotes, from someone that used to drive "Stick-shift" in the UK and France , back in the day...
Fast driving on narrowish and sometimes windy(sp) roads at speed would require one to overtake another vehicle in a relatively comprehensive way; usually even if one is going 40, 50 or even 60 miles an hour the technique was to drop the car down into 2nd gear and floor it.
Obviously over-reving / rpm-ing the engine temporarily, great acceleration at higher speed and usually a pretty successful / bankable maneuver. In France I found myself playing "Chicken" with on-coming vehicles that would also be over taking. - Seems perfectly normal in France / normal way to get from A to B.
Unlike the Friends "Theme Tune" ~ Driving around in second gear is not a fun experience due to high rpms - engine noise + constant and exacerbated gear box / transmission noise and presumably wear and vibration.
Take that one step further - transmission for something like a old school stick shift
Land Rover. It's small underpowered (back in the day unless V-8 twin carbs etc.) YET can pretty much pull anything as the transmission is 1/2 tractor transmission. So you could pull (for example) large (horse) trailers at reasonable speed on the "Motorway" / Freeway BUT the freak'n transmission is so loud you can't have a "Conversation" you'd have to literally shout to converse - A good 75% of the noise was from the transmission. [Older - less precise gears with a bit of "Tractor" thinking behind it.].
Twenty five years later (in the USA) I have Diesel
Powerstroke F-350 that gets stuck in the mud (at my own ranch) after heavy rains (two wheel drive not 4 wheel drive )... So three different friends try to pull my truck out of the mud with their various pick up trucks and fail. Finally I grab a
small-ish Kubota tractor (front end loader) - HYDROSTATIC transmission and pull the f-350 out of the mud - no problem ! Small three cylinder diesel engine with a massive transmission. Still kinda noisy. [I have a "Yuppie-truck" F-150 with a "Stealth"
raptor engine block - I like that for regular driving around. Overdrive works pretty well
but I have to admit there seems to be a perplexing 'gap" in the gear ratios / gear box ]. ~ Sometimes when pulling using a less powerful engine (more bog standard plain vanilla F-150) (from a dead stop)
+ pulling trailers that the OVERDRIVE would cause the rear wheels to spin in place, lose traction and very difficult to find a good "Bite point" from a dead stop [I.e. the transmission senses the torque demand and drops into overdrive... . This becomes particularly dangerous when parked at an icy intersection on a hill and you lose traction waiting to get T boned. More powerful engine with lower end torque seems (for me at least) MUCH safer and not drop into overdrive. I don't feel that I would have the capability to destroy a drive shaft in either situation; maybe an ultra souped up off road truck maybe ?
Conversely had friends in the UK that were insane rally drivers and of course they had the power-curves on standard converted vehicles totally maxed out for very high RPM and higher responsive torque and all round responsiveness but was always funny coming back from the pub as it would take at least 5 minutes for them to start the bloody thing - without the engine stalling out at low revs for twentieth time on a damp winters night.
@magneticanomaly Maybe bust out some transmission layouts for the specific vehicles or applications you have in mind ?
I have almost zero knowledge of automatic transmissions but have always been shocked by the materials and methods used in automatic transmissions for a regular "Saloon" car as it seems to indicate internal torque may not be so much of an issue using "Rubber bands" and polymeric materials in the drive train.
I'm trying to imagine what kind of torque is required to destroy a drive shaft ?
I know carbon fiber drive shafts are becoming more popular for high performance vehicles.
Magneticanomaly
I suggested that the answer was to limit maximum torque though the driveshaft
These days we have electric vehicles and in some cases higher precision gears ...
Interested to see where you're going with this.