I don’t doubt that it would prove time consuming to categorize the various programs out there. For the program to yield consistent results over time; however, I would suspect a gradual trend one way or the other would have to, by default, become evident.
The alternative would indicate some sort of complex approach to programming the actual speed work which, in and of itself, lends to interesting problems so I’d be curious to know of the actual intentions of some of the coaches out there who do not think in terms of short to long or long to short and, subsequently, do not program the speed work in a way that gradually works towards longer or shorter distances over the course of the year.
No question injuries tend to come with the territory regarding athletes who are capable of generating the forces necessary to compete at the highest levels; however, I’d suspect, which is something I generally avoid, that ‘most’ of the soft tissue injuries we see in T&F have more to do with programming/coaching errors versus the demands of the sprint training itself; regardless if the program is S-L, L-S, or any other variant.