Thank you for bumping this. I had missed the earlier posts. Kudos to zzzz for the excellent and fascinating research! It inspired me to look at higher level performers in the men's 5,000. Specifically, I looked at the 50th, 100th, 250th, and 500th best performers over the same time span. Here's what I found:
50th
2012 13:15.31 Thomas FARRELL
2013 13:15.87 Elroy GELANT
2014 13:18.10 Aweke AYALEW
2015 13:17.49 Collis BIRMINGHAM
2016 13:16.35 Davis KIPLANGAT
2017 13:17.80 Bethwell BIRGEN
2018 13:20.08 Bethwell BIRGEN
2019 13:17.23 Kirubel ERASSA
2020 13:23.99 Samwel MASAI
2021 13:15.91 Jonas RAESS
2022 13:11.73 Emmanuel Korir KIPLAGAT
100th
2012 13:24.22 Clement Kiprono LANGAT
2013 13:27.10 Dawit WELDESILASIE
2014 13:28.81 Milion YEHWALAESHET
2015 13:27.44 Daniel KIPKEMBOI
2016 13:24.13 Teklit TEWELDEBRHAN
2017 13:26.55 Thomas CURTIN
2018 13:28.54 Nicholas KIPKORIR
2019 13:27.16 Amos KURGAT
2020 13:33.83 Suguru OSAKO
2021 13:22.16 Oliver HOARE
2022 13:20.02 Nicholas Mboroto KOSIMBE
250th
2012 13:42.31 Collin JARVIS
2013 13:44.14 Abdenasir FATHI
2014 13:45.25 Girma MECHESO
2015 13:40.06 Vladimir NIKITIN
2016 13:42.06 Aaron NELSON
2017 13:43.75 Florian ORTH
2018 13:43.13 Obsa ALI
2019 13:42.06 Dejen TESFALEM
2020 13:45.80 Shuya IWAMI
2021 13:35.94 Masashi NONAKA
2022 13:33.38 Nickson Lesiyia PARIKEN
500th
2012 13:57.34 Morsi RAYYAN
2013 13:57.68 Bruno ALBUQUERQUE
2014 13:58.38 Yo YAZAWA
2015 13:54.75 Akira AIZAWA
2016 13:55.19 Tony SMORAGIEWICZ
2017 13:57.39 Mizuki SEKIGUCHI
2018 13:56.49 Milkesa MENGESHA
2019 13:55.35 Wesley DE KERPEL
2020 13:57.61 Akihiro KANEKO
2021 13:47.25 Kazuto KAWABATA
2022 13:44.65 Nathan HENDERSON
At the 50th level, the 2012-2020 average was 13:18.02 and dropped to 13:11.73 in 2022, an improvement of 6.29 seconds.
At the 100th level, the 2012-2020 average was 13:27.53 and dropped to 13:20.02, an improvement of 7.51 seconds.
At the 250th level, the 2012-2020 average was 13:43.17 and dropped to 13:33.38, an improvement of 9.79 seconds.
At the 500th level, the 2012-2020 average was 13:56.69 and dropped to 13:44.65, an improvement of 12.04 seconds.
These findings add further support to zzzz's conclusion that the super shoe effect is greater at slower paces. In this case, we see that trend within the same event.
It's also noteworthy that a 13:44.65 mark in the 5,000 would have been at or near 250th in the world from 2012-2020 but in 2022 it was "only" good enough for 500th.