Well, I saved frames in Stage 7, carried that through Stage 1, and here we are in Stage 4 trying to squeeze out more savings. I removed a pause thanks to better item drops. This dropped a frame rule. I had 2 frame rules before this stage and 2 frame rules after. Now that I carried the 2 frames rules forward, that would be 4 frame rules, which I can trivially remove for the 32-frame item cycle, but since I saved an extra frame rule, I'm now stuck with 8 frames delay in stage select after Stage 4. I guess I'm not getting a free ride in manipulation if I want to get rid of that delay. I saved too many frames for my own good!
In other news, I copied Team 3 straight to the first boss we can skip. Having not put in much time on trying the skip (I took more time typing this paragraph than trying the skip), I have not succeeded. As Exonym is the one who confirmed the skip, that's the one to ask to make it happen again, as first-hand experience should make it a lot easier.