Taking things chronologically, let's start with the NISMO case at Suzuka. Post-race, team director/engineer Ken Nakajima told Motorsport.com's Japanese edition that the #23 car was not running with a particularly aggressive set-up, and that the cause for the worn skid block would have to be investigated.
"If we had pitted [for a third time] to replace the tyre, we would have dropped a lot of positions anyway, so we decided just to keep going, and although towards the end there was a lot of white smoke coming off the car at 130R, but we were able to continue. "I was focused on protecting the tyres, especially the left-rear that gets put under a lot of stress through the final corner, so we set up the car with that in mind," he added.
But at the end of the day, teams have to decide how aggressively to set up their cars, knowing that, in general, the lower you go, the faster you will be - and that, around a track like Sugo with its aggressive kerbs and uphill last corner, there is a risk of the skid block being worn down if they sail too close to the wind.