You're cherry-picking data points to serve your pre-existent argument. What happened this year is that the top runners ran significantly faster, while the lower level runners ran the same. I don't think the 3k and 5k were targeted as much as normal this year. The 5k had two big nights, in December and late January, while the 3k didn't have a lot of big meets but the mile did. The mile was much better at the top and top ten, the 3k was better at the top than ever and in the top ten, and the 5k was better in the top three and top ten than ever. Incidentally, I proved using outdoor lists from last year compared to indoor from this year, that there was more sub-4 equivalent depth outdoors than in, so the indoor tracks aren't magic either. Improvements in the top times indoors were not due to shoe improvements.
2022-23
mile 1 3:50.46 7 3:52.99#@ 12 3:54.93 35 3:56.98@ 49th (tie) 3:57.76 97 3:59.89
100 4:00.38 200 4:04.00
3000m 1 7:36 (the 2 best all-time) 17 7:44.76 30 7:49.89 50 7:52.96
100 7:58.11 200 8:05.16
5000m 1 13:11 (three at 13:11, unprecedented) 5 13:15 10 13:21 19 13:29 50 13:42
100 13:54.00 200 14:10.42
2021-22
mile 1 3:52.03 (1.6 seconds slower) 2 3:53.36 (slower than #7 in 2023) 3 3:54.07@ (third would rank closer to tenth this year) 8 3:54.77 (8 broke 3:55 vs. 12 this year) 17 3:55.95# (17 broke 3:56) 30 3:56.87 (30 broke 3:57 vs 35 last year) 50 3:58.08 (slower by 0.3) 90 3:59.98@ (97 broke four this year, 90 last year) 100 4:00.34 (virtually identical) 200 4:04.74#@ (0.74 slower than this year)
3000 1 7:38 (2 seconds slower) 10 7:43.84 (10 sub-7:45 vs. 17 this year) 38 7:49.91# (38 sub-7:50 vs. 30 this year) 50 7:52.02 (.94 s faster than this year) 100 7:56.97 (1.14s faster than this year) 131 under 8:00 200 8:05.68 (.5 slower)
5000
1 13:09 2 13:14 3 13:14 4 13:21 (better #1 but only three sub-13:20 vs. 9 this year), 20 13:28.95 (20 sub 13:30 vs. 19 this year) 50 13:45.95 (3-4 seconds slower than this year) 100 13:56.95 (slower, vs. 13:54 this year) 200 14:16.21 (six seconds slower than this year)
2020-21
mile #1 and #2 3:50 3 3:53 4 3:55 6 3:55.60 (ten sub 3:57) seventeen sub 3:58 Thirty-Eight sub 4. Very little high quality depth compared to the last two years
50 4:02.34 (4 seconds slower than 2022 and 2023) 100 4:06.49 (6 seconds slower than 2022 and 2023) 200 4:11.94! (7 seconds slower than 2022, 8 seconds slower than 2023)
Much worse depth. But who is saying that the shoes made a 6-8 second difference in the mile? The spikes were introduced by Nike in 2019 but adopted widely in 2021.
3000 1 7:46 Only five under 7:50 vs. 38 in 2022 and 30 in 2023 10 7:53.08 Only 31 sub-8 (compared to 131 in 2022 and something over 100 in 2023) 50 8:02.6 100 8:10.63 (14 seconds slower than 2022, 13 seconds slower than 2023) 200 8:22.22 (17 seconds slower than 2022 and 2023)
5000 1 13:28 (3 sub 13:30) 9 sub 13:40 (Adriaan Wildschutt dropped 30 seconds indoors from 2021 to 2022) 29 sub 13:50 44 sub 14 50 14:03 100 14:19 200 14:47 (29 seconds slower than 2022 and 37 seconds slower than 2023)
Recall that COVID struck down the season only during nationals, so the meets were all available during the indoor season--with the exception of maybe a few conference meets. They did have the balance of the season. There is something bigger than spikes in the differences between 2021 and the past two seasons, because the differences are too great for the spikes to account for them and the spikes were actually already out in wide use in 2021 at some point, so I would guess that some NCAA athletes had them already indoors, but I could be wrong. My belief is that extra covid years account for a lot of the improvement. When I analyzed top times previously, I saw many of the better guys would have graduated otherwise.