I do have a writeup for breaking in the engine where it says that revving it up to redline is OK once the engine is well broken in but it really won't do anything that loading up the engine won't do.
http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/enginebreakin.htm My opinion is that you will be fine either way but people wanted some recommendations so I wrote an article.
One of the problems I have with the writeup on the other site is that the author implies that good compression and no oil consumption will happen if you follow his engine break in technique. I attribute long term engine health to long term maintenance, good warm up, and good engine oil, not break in. The car will break in one way or another with a normal driver and normal driving habits. It won't blow up if you don't follow my recommendations either.
You are correct that RPM =/= power because you can rev it in neutral and you won't be making much power. But too much load is also not good. For example, lugging the engine at a low rpm and high load.
Really, engine break in is important but your car won't blow up if it gets a little more or a little less. For example, I've heard that the first 20 minutes of operation on a camshaft is the most important. That 20 minutes was already done at the factory and on/off the delivery truck, around the dealer, etc. And some pumpe duse camshafts have been wearing and I feel that it had nothing to do with engine breakin, it's due to other unknown factors like a design/manufacturing problem. I say this because even though some engines got pumpe duse engine oil they still got cam wear.
