Yes, the individual gears are very similar, but the final drive is the big difference.

I'm not trying to be argumentative. That the gearing is shorter or more aggressive in the EX/Si transmissions is a fact. I don't know the math behind it, but my understanding of gear ratios is that a change (numerically) in the tenth's place of a gear's ratio is relatively significant.

If the B7 tranny is one of the most aggressive you've felt/driven, that's fine, I'm not saying you're wrong. My only point originally was that you must never have ridden in a car without econmy gearing.