I think you’re all missing the point! You’re all trying to think how your individual situation can be embedded in a single test. But that’s never going to happen of course! Because every Mac/PC is different. There will never be a test that will compare different systems and come up with a reliable result!
A test like this needs to be as basic as possible! And it only needs to test ‘your current’ system going from one Cubase version to another. You shouldn’t compare different systems with each other, because the comparison makes no sense! Because of course your newer system will surely be able to do more tracks!
And other people’s systems may be more powerful and they may use more advanced audio devices, etc.
So don’t make it too complicated! This test should only be about testing your own ‘current’ system.
It should only be a test to see how your current version of Cubase compares to the newer version on this same system? Because, any other comparison makes no sense!
In this respect I think the Dom Sigalas (corrected) test is the perfect tool to do this.
It only uses Cubase’s Retroloque and embedded plugins.
This is perfect to compare Cubase versions on your own system and see how they compare.
To be clear, this test should not be about who has the biggest, who has the fastest and who can do the most tracks?
This test should only be about comparing how one Cubase version on your system compares to the next!