and later in the paragraph begining " But Gil- Galad 's persuasive arguments..'
you go on to state that , " it may only have been Gil-Galad's relationship to THingol do you mean Caleborn or Thranduil's father if not I would be curious to see what relationship to Elwe you mean.
As for thoughts about Gil-Galad he was definitely an anomoly in that he reigned for the entirety of the second age.
His main military/political resource seems to have been his relationship to the numenoreans [both pre-exile{sometimes} and exiled the strained relations w/ some of the Noldor and much of the Sindar was fascinatingly brought out in your article
as was the ultimate perversity of the idea of stoppingTime/the fading of the Elves .
I have often wondered what kind of powers the different High King's really had . Did Gil-Galad try and command Celebrimbor[as hisd High -King] to not have anything to do w/ Sauron in disguise? It is unlikely but we are told that they would not let "the Lord of Gifts ' into Lindon.
So had he the authority and dare he use it to close Eregion to S.?
And did his High Kih\ng ship in any way extend to Galadriel ? was she setting up in Lorien a rebuff of his Authority ?

Anyway Gil-Gald seems to have been a reasonably skilled coalition builder to get Dwarves,
Numenoreans and especially silvan elves {who sat out the' post-return of the Noldor' battles of the first age } to march to war together-even if the silvan elves were under there own banner -it is more than Fingolfin or Fingon could achieve w/Thingol.

It is curious to speculate if many of the Noldor who stayed in Middle-Earth were the !st age children born in beleriand
as were Gil-Galad and Elrond who only knew middle-earth and had yet to relly have their mettle tested -their parents all being hero's it may have been hard to return to Valinor where the stories would be retoldand sung -but little chance to live them.