perched water table

now i got 20 gallon pots and i wanna do an aeration layer at the bottom. i know this is kinda controversial as people say this just pushes the perched water table upwards and let more root mass sit in the fully saturated soil and i know thats true too but having a layer capable of creating gas exchange at the bottom of the pots i guess is the real reason people do this stuff and so this is not a drainage layer per se but an aeration layer.

now my question is after the reading i’ve done i have an idea of how this might work but sometimes i’m dense and can be mistaken so lets say i got a pot as seen in the doodle i made

it drains only from the elevated part of the pot and there are no drainage holes in the lower sides.


so lets say may mediums perched water table is as in the 2nd doodle.


now if i layer the whole bottom the perched water table will be like in the 3rd doodle


and if i only layer the middle section of the pot its gonna be like in the 4th doodle?



which means if i can layer only the middle section and sacrifice medium in favor of an aeration layer i can technically eliminate the pwt in the middle of the pot?

so would the sides hold more water this way? as i understand the height of the pwt is same for the same medium in any kind of pot. can pwt be above an aeration layer?*

*edit: what i meant here is can they be on the same level as the doodle 4 illustrates? duh! haha