So being as wacked as I am I wrote the EPA. I asked to talk to someone about the extra gear better fuel thing. I haven't heard back but I expect it will take some time if I hear anything back at all. So in the meantime I checked out the gov's 1996 tercel ratings and was surprised to see there was no economy difference between 4 and 5 speeds.
But them I checked out our work truck.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymo...ilverado.shtml
checking out the numbers between the v6 and v8's vs total gear counts does indicate extra gears are better. It's all a tad confusing.