Several points, all of which have been made many times before in one form or another but are apparently overdue for repetition.

First, the reason why the man's footwork on the inside of a feather finish is THT and not TH, NFR is because of his role above the lady in the subsequent swing. Were it instead the lady on the inside of the turn, her footwork would be TH, NFR - in fact it is, when this very situation occurs as a named figure elsewhere in the book. But with the man on the inside of a turn preceding a passing feather action, he needs to be in an above position so that the lady can swing up from underneath in the subsequent feather action, so he returns to his toe earlier enough to count as as bonafide (if moderate) foot rise.

Second, outside partner steps are not in actual execution by skilled dancers characterized by a small distance of travel. What is small about them is the amount of initial reach - with the body exhibiting proper CBMP form, the legs will be substantially across the body and this will reduce the initial extension of the step. So it's right to tell students to keep things compact, for example placing the right foot seemingly under the left shoulder. However, a fully skilled dancer will not simply swing their leg across the body, their body will also be moving a lot during this process. And that continued body movement (it actually draws out to be the longest time duration of any of the three movements in SQQ foxtrot) means that the outside partner step ultimate ends up covering a lot of footprint-to-footprint distance. But one should remember that it's a large body movement - the moving foot is just going along for the ride, NOT reaching. And it's going to take a few years of training before the typical student can move their body with that kind of elegantly floating continuity. Until that body is doing that, the step will indeed and quite properly be small.

Finally, on this issue:

"Take a look at nine times British Champion and see on the first step of a Feather how far ahead of the body the RF goes before it becomes a heel . For years I had beleived as the book says. As the RF passes the toe of the LF the Left Heel will be released from the floor. Not any more. It is now released much later by our top dancers. Go see for yourselves."

We are looking at a bit of reader confusion. The posted concern is about the timing of the "flick" of the moving right foot, however, the passage in the book is about the STANDING left foot. In addition, the book is talking about the release of the heel while the poster is worried about the rise of the toe. Further, if the poster will flip to the next page in his book, he will see that it in fact recommends precisely the action of the moving foot that he has observed top dancers doing.

One more thing to realize about this passage from the book concerning the heel of the standing foot is that it's talking about a nominal case which rarely occurs when actually dancing. In dancing the common cases are that of a lowering step, in which case the standing heel is down until just before the moving heel lands, and that of a rising step, in which case the standing heel needs to break free slightly before the moving foot passes. The in between case of the rise of the heel coinciding exactly with the passing of the moving foot would only occur if dancing moderately high in the legs without rise or fall - something we hardly ever do during a dance. Instead, it's there as a simplified and generic introduction to the concepts.