Why wouldn’t a faster engine speed give more power?
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There’s a few specific design features. Really you’re right. The faster the better. Old formula one engines used to run up to 24,000rpm, where your old VW air cooled engine might run out of revs at around 4000 or less.
You could write a phd on this, and I’m sure some have. The eli5 would be that you only get so many points to build an engine with. Like assigning your skills at the start of a video game.
If you want to make it cheap, you can’t use fancy materials. A mass production car engine running 20,000 rpm will just explode into pieces.
Then you have to pick how you’d like the engine to feel. If you want it to run the most power, then has to rev to faster speeds, but then an engine that runs fast speeds also by nature will run horrible at low speeds.
Then you have economy, if you’re putting this in a commuter car, those people care more about mileage than power, so you need to set the points toward mileage.
Then you have lifespan, if your engine needs to last years rather than just one race, then the parts can’t be stressed to near failure.
Those settings are decided by how wide the piston is, how far it travels up and down, and when the valves open and close and how closely you can control the fuel input. All of that is decided by how by how you want the explosion to behave when you set fire to the fuel in the cylinder.
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