Run too much lift or take the valve out and you will lose air flow!poppet valves dont make any sense. no matter what lift you run, they are always in the way.
A simple way to illustrate is an aircraft wing, beyond a certain angle of attack the airflow can not stay attached to the curved upper surface, massive turbulence, no lift, aircraft falls from sky.
The port, valve shape and combustion chamber behave in a similar fashion, once the airflow detaches from the surfaces you get massive turbulence and less flow.
On a high velocity flow bench you don't have to read the gauges, you can hear the turbulence!
Another interesting thing with AA Dragsters is the cam is ground out of phase to allow for the twist it gets from the lift and tension of the valve springs.