Yes I too was struck by the difference in sett sizes above.

So many of my opinions about what looks "right" in Highland Dress come from nearly 40 years of looking at, owning, and wearing the Highland Dress as it's worn in the Army.

From the later 19th century up till today the Army tends to use quite large sett sizes, and that's what I'm used to, in mens kilts.

The tartan industry seems to go along, in the main, as they tend to use larger sett sizes for the heavyweight tartan intended for mens kilts.

Here's an example of the drastic difference it can make in the appearance of a kilt: two kilts in MacKenzie tartan...





Those are extremes; most mens kilts you'll see will fall somewhere between.

In thinking of sett size, it's very interesting, in The Highlanders of Scotland, to see sett sizes all over the map. Witness the drastically different sett sizes of these two MacDonald kilts:



I don't think I've ever seen a kilt in the ordinary Clan Donald tartan with a sett that large.

On the other hand, that red MacDonald tartan is usually seen with a much larger sett size, for mens kilts, nowadays.

Here they are, worn by The Isle of Skye Pipe Band:



Of course this tartan can readily be traced to the source, as it was copied from this painting. Note the rather large sett size in the original: