By me?
Your analogy of acrobats is lacking, I think. When they are on each other's shoulders, the mass on the bottom feet is three times as much as the mass on the feet if there is only one person standing on the feet, assuming all weigh the same.
In my analogy there were two cases:
1st case. The three identical acrobats are all standing on the gym floor.
2nd case. One of the identical acrobats is standing on the gym floor, a second acrobat is standing on his shoulders, and the third is standing on the second acrobats shoulders.
In both cases the three acrobats have the same total mass. But even though the mass is the same the acrobat standing on the floor in the second case has three times as much stress on his feet as the acrobat at the top.
