I think you can draw some interesting conclusions from pop reports about card scarcity within the same series (eg. 171-190 having a shorter print run than the rest of the 3rd series, or the same for 281-300 in the 5th series). Pop reports are unquestionably the best tool available to judge surviving populations (and by extension scarcity). That said, pretending they are gospel truth is foolish.
If every card were submitted at the same rate, you could make some really meaningful conclusions, but that's not the reality. Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays are more valuable, and as such, are submitted far more often than Ray Scarborough or Eddie Yost. If I own a low grade Mantle, I'm going to grade it every time. I'm not doing that with a Yost.
The OP on some level recognizes this fact, but doesn't seem to grasp that that incentive doesn't just exist for Mantle and Mays, it exists for ALL of the 6th series in a way that it doesn't for any other series. A Sam White #345 in a PSA 2 is a ~$120 card. A Pat Mullin #275 (the apparent rarest card in the set) in a PSA 2 is a $20 card. Plenty of people are grading that White, while you're losing money by grading the Mullin in that condition.
It's a simple matter of dollars and cents, people don't like losing money.
There isn't enough return in low grades to justify grading a Mullin, so collectors aren't doing it. High series cards are valuable, and collectors spend the money to protect them and to try to lock in the value. The end result is the graded population of 5th series is disproportionately low, while the graded population of the 6th series is disproportionately high. It has nothing to do with actual scarcity.
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