A station with four short report pairs can take less time to shoot than one with two soaring true pairs so you can't just count the birds and do it that way. The course designer has to know how long the average shooter will spend on that stand. It is more art than science. Most casual shooters don't realize that it is a major consideration in good course design. Mid-Hudsons layout was perfectly paced and this doesn't happen by accident.
Every course has a personality.
It is usually set by one particular style of presentation that is shown in various iterations. This Mid-Hudson course had numerous examples of a moderate distance crosser shot along with a longer quartering bird. The idea behind this is to trick the shooter by forcing him to go from a high gunspeed crossing shot to the more subtle pointing requirements of the quartering bird. The shift is from near and fast to far and fine- or the other way around depending. Spice is added to the stew by introducing hooks, curves, droppers and changing speeds to this basic pair.