I really have gotten to where I like them for everything.  I still use my 6.3:1 (26" ipt) for some deep diving cranks and some of my spinnerbaits or chatterbaits if I'm slowing myself down.  The main thing I run into personally is I always want my rod completely loaded up when I hook a fish and if they're coming at me I've had slack come into the line faster with a 6.3:1.  Just my perspective.

Frogging and Top Water.......

Isn't ipt based on the size of the spool? A larger spool ( in diameter) would produce more ipt than a smaller diameter spool regardless of gear ratio.

IPT is based on the size of the spool, and stands for Inches per turn. It's not however one turn of the spool but rather 1 turn of the reel handle. If you take the Revo Rocket as an example. It really only picks up slightly more than 4" of line with each revolution of a full spool, but because the gear ration spins the spool 9 times in the one revolution of the crank your IPT will be 37".

And I use a 7.1 for just about everything.