I've never used the element as a gauge of heat level...
To me its always just been "glowy orange"
The amount of protrusion of the element certainly has an effect on the heat at the herb, when I pull my element, I can just get the whole STD - 100 bit visible, when I let go it sucks itself back in a bit so that the last 0 is about half covered, and by about a day the whole - 100 bit is covered.
I normally run my LSV anywhere from 1 - full blast, with no combustion.
(This all relates to my black one - my silver one is currently in a few pieces for experiments
I'll have to check what the element is like on my silver one, I remember it running a bit hotter than my black...
Oh, and I've noticed that the size of the intake hole can affect the output temp - smaller intake = higher temp