Not much I can contribute substantively to this Thread. I have several Savage Model 1920 and one quite nice 1920/26 model. They were interesting rifles. Quality in design & engineering in terms of a moderately early postwar sporting rifle. They were indeed slim, ultimately lightweight and functionally reliable. I can't speak to accuracy. The intro of the 300 Savage round would have seeming added quite a bit to marketability, moving toward mainstream popular caliber. I had also read reference to Savage experimenting with 30-06 chambering. Yet that fundamentally different than simply 'working with' the existing rifle. I know virtually nothing about the earlier Savage "experimental" referenced. What perhaps to contribute are 'external factors'. A project undertaken in 1916 and by Great War's end, still not into any apparent sort of "production". Like any military inertia lost. That and the wider problem noted, "investment". the American War Department likely not a 'nut to crack' by outside firm in that entire era! As far as foreign contracts, a new battle untested design, questions concerning the firm's "show" to "go" ratio, the fluff versus genuine capability... Retrospect is truly wonderful, but even in that European war concluding era, difficult to see nations rushing to beat down a foreign sporting manufacturer door! To many 'ifs'!
As to the 1920 model, for what it was, a quite decent rifle. Also, presumably "affordable" context. What it wasn't, likely again as above, a matter of timing! Remington, a gorilla in the marketplace with huge numbers of "surplus" govt P17 components, purchased as "scrap" . From those wartime ashes, beating out pretty decent 'battle proven' morphed sporters... Into civilian sporting plowshares!
Remington entered production in 1921 with the market 'cornered as materials, production facilities, skilled labor force... 'market to lose'. And they managed to do so! But that another story. Just to remark the several years before Winchester Model 54 entered the scene, Remington 'ensconced firmly on laurels'.! The little Savage, both somewhat ignored internal competition with their own lever rifles, and without advertising blitz, largely ignored by American shooters. The post WWII Remington Models 721 & 722, were close cousins in more polished, sophisticated skins.
Just my take!
John
