Depends,
Your first paragraph was very well put. I wondered how I was going to say the same thing.
There is another small point about Easton's actions during that race. My memory is that he never left his seat during the race. He was sitting directly in front of me and jumped up and down the whole time. That was my first Olympic final on the track and I had a heck of a time seeing the lead runners and my friends in the race as they passed by.
I wrote down the splits at each 1,000 meter check point in my "Official Programme". I show the leaders at those check points to be to be Clarke, Clarke, Temu(he was no longer with the leaders at half way), Clarke, Clarke, Wolde, Clarke, Mills, Clarke. On the side of the page I notated "Mills, Clarke, Temu, Wolde ran together all the way & cut the field to pieces."
Who remembers that Japan's Kokichi Tsuburaya was sixth in that race and then came third in the marathon for Japan's only track and field medal? When Tsuburaya entered the stadiium in second place, just ahead of Basil Heatley(GB), there was a tremendous roar.