you enlighten me everyday 11H. i always thought the 4.10 was always the better of the two; for quick 1/4 mile action. but what you explained makes sense.
I know someone will refute this, so I will detail a bit more ...

It's not always the case, especially in bracket cars ... The difference is that a bracket car has a driveline that stays peaked near red line and to do that, deep gears are needed along with many other things matched for the optimum rpm range of the motor (converter, close ratio gears, etc.) ...
On trucks like ours with a relatively low RPM HP peak, I have seen consistently, results where 4.10's peaked the motor sooner and fell off on RWHP vs. 3.73's ... That's power under the curve over a smaller operating range ... Again, it depends on the inletting, cam, exhaust, max rpm, etc.
More power under the curve with the 3.73's will not necessarily get you through the 1/4 mile faster, as the launch time is a major factor where deeper 4.10's will help, but where jonboy says the 3.73's feel "faster" above 30 MPH, indicates they are doing better than the 4.10's in a certain RPM range ... I had 2 trucks once, a 3.73 Z71 Extra Cab and a 4.10 Z71 extra cab ... I owned the 4.10 truck first ... When I bought the 3.73 truck, (same truck config) the 3.73's felt gutsier once the truck got moving ... The 4.10 truck revved quicker, but the 3.73 truck felt stronger ...
Plus, as he said, you could expect the R&P to handle more shock and torque just because there's more material and also, since the 4.10's carry more torque multiplication, the rear carrier is exposed to more forces too as are the axles ...
Ask Gandy what happened to his dyno sheets when he went from 3.73's to 4.10's ... Now in a big 8.1 that change may not have helped his cruise acceleration as there's an abundance of torque everywhere, but for sure his launch was better hence the ET better just due to a lower 60' time ...
Saying all this, if I were to creep over the edge with a supercharger, I would defenitely keep the 3.73's in my 1500 av ... No doubt ...
11H