Simple observation and personal experience. If you look at the cars that have had forged motors put in them you'll notice once thing in common......nothing outrageous for HP numbers compared to their stock shortblock counter parts and these motors are typically way down on peak torque.

In my case I made 426 RWHP/400 RWTQ with a set of LS1 MTI Stage II heads on my car. I built a forged LS6 shortblock with about the same compression (11.1:1) as the LS1 had with the MTI heads, used the same B1 cam degree'd in the motor to the identical ICL, used better Stage III LS6 cylinder heads that were flowed on the same bench as the MTI heads and made a best of 411 RWHP/376 RWTQ after tweaking the set-up on 14 different dyno runs trying to maximize power. The new shortblock only has 2.9% leakdown which is phenonmenal so no issues here.

Bottom line....no one can explain to me why this new combo should be worth 25 RWTQ less than the old given that the heads are better flowing.

If you need other examples look at Verb's set-up or Country Boy. Both run forged shortblocks with the G5X3 cams and they are way down in power and torque compared to motors with these cams that aren't forged. Still need convincing?