Hi Doug: this is wrong, flexible AWES are less affected than rigid AWES. The mass scaling exponents K of flexible AWES are lesser than the ones of rigid AWES. This has been well documented for at least 14 years, and not only by Dave Santos. Please specify how many more years it will take you to understand this.
For flexible kites in spite of they are particularly heavy: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290775361_Ram-air_Wing_Design_Considerations_for_Airborne_Wind_Energy , I summarized the values.
As an example (page 533 and from Fig. 31.13), from the about 17.5 m span (102 m²) and 1 ton kite to the about 55 m span (900 m²) and 13.5 ton kite, the mass scaling exponent K is 2.273 (I use exponent calculator).
For rigid kites, WES - Scaling effects of fixed-wing ground-generation airborne wind energy systems figure 3 mentions three values: K = 2.7, or K = 3, or K = 3.3.
The difference between K = 2.273 and even the lowest value for studied rigid kites K = 2.7, is quite huge, above all if you consider that far lighter flexible kites could start the range at a far lower weight level than comparable rigid kites, ending still far lower.
It is not only an issue of “to have the most wind possible hit the majority of the rotors of the series”.
As I mentioned, the catenary sag effect aggravates the scalability problem. And apparently the problem of scalability due to the catenary sag effect has not been addressed until now: this is evidenced by the skeptical reactions since here, in spite of the details I provided.
I have provided you with elements that allow you to understand why your ST hangs in the middle when it is a little too long, while the altitude is only a few meters above the ground, as shown on this video. If you want ST scales still more, it will look like a large snake that has swallowed a too big prey, napping on the floor, the lifter kite lifting only its nose. 