From my experience, most guys in the top classes are running decent telemetry equipment and recording their times. Maybe sometimes it’s a question like “what is the correct line through turn 6”, and they’ll try different lines and compare data amongst their own runs or other similar cars/drivers. But it’s not a competition, there is no one else recording times (like an autocross), and usually your lap time will get “affected” by some car in your way or you have to slow down to let someone pass.
There are cars that are really quick in one section, but slow in the others (miata is probably the best example). This can cause traffic jams and unhappy people. Most people there are very cool, pretty competitive, but still there to have a good time and be courteous. There can be a small douchebag minority there to prove something. Usually the instructors intervene in that case.
I think the ultimate point is to drive your car harder and faster than you ever could on public roads. People thinking they are getting recruited to F1 won’t like the HPDE format. They also have a classroom section, the quality being highly dependent on the person leading it (like any class). If westwest was leading the class I would laugh and leave immediately