[Ned Scott]

Actually, bitrate is also meaningless. The one true king is knowing the video format, profile and level

Wrong.

Profile and level define upper limits (for bitrate, res, ref frames, etc).

Simply knowing the profile and level of a tested video does not tell you how close you are to the upper limits.

You need to know every aspect of the video spec. If you ensure that every aspect - res, bitrate, ref frames, fps - is right on the max limit for a given profile and level, THEN you can declare compliancy. So to say that bitrate is meaningless is absurd.

How does this make any sense? If it's not within the limit then it's out of spec, yes? So both of you are saying the same thing. It doesn't matter how "close" it is to the max as long as it is within the spec. That's how standards work. If you are within the spec then it really won't matter what the exact bitrate is, because any bitrate that causes an issue will be out of spec.