some design directions like the down-and-out mass distribution just become inevitable. Taken to its ultimate conclusion, down-and-out leads directly to the recessed tip and the dense flywheel on a much lower density core. And once you have a recessed tip, you of course need a secure pedestal shaped to let the top do its thing.
This depends on the aim of the maker.
In my case, I decided to develop a design with the aim of the longest spin times, but this is a very particular and uncommon aim, there aren't many tops designed with this aim. Then, there are many ways for making a top to spin longer, and the maker has to select which solutions to adopt and which not. The recessed tip for this aim is not an obvious solution like you seem to believe, and you don't find many tops with recessed tip with this aim, in the present or in the past, at the countrary, (apart from the Malay gasing, I don't know any other, do you ?).
The Maxwell top doesn't have a recessed tip for to spin longer, Maxwell's aims were completely different, in fact even if my design has some random similitudes with the Maxwell top, reality is that my tops have nothing to do with it.
I didn't even know the Maxwell top when I started recessing my tips.
The story of the recessed tip in my tops is that, while looking for new solutions for improving the spin times, I found in internet that there are Malay spinning tops with the recessed tip, with the exact aim to spin longer.
I tried it and it worked well, it is a simple solution, also it has the advantage that the top doesn't fall down at the end of the spin, but it gently leans on the base, meaning that I can make refined, polished tops, as I like to do, without having to worry too much to scratch them while playing with them. It also allowed me to create objects a bit different from the usual finger tops, so I adopted it.