Really nice video!
I believe that Cziffra was going for a very wild interpretation for the torrent etude since the word torrent can be associated with words like uncontrolled or turbulent. Personally I'm not necessarily a fan of any of Cziffra's interpretations of chopin etudes. I actually found Bruce Liu (most recent winner of Chopin Competition) had a really nice performance of Etude no. 4 op. 10.
I personally love eccentric performers such as Pogorelich or Glenn Gould, but I can't get myself to like Khatia Buniatishvili or Lang Lang because I can't see a sense of direction or purpose with their playing. Lang Lang, I believe, is too submissive to his own feelings and it creates a foolish, non-philosophical performance. On the other hand, I think Lang Lang, a slave to his feelings, is able to create (although rarely) truly beautiful moments that cannot be explained with logic. This is my take on Lang Lang.
I really liked your comparison between Trifonov and Ovchinnikov. Trifonov's playing for this etude was too vertical than horizontal. Your comparison between these two pianists was really great for explaining what makes a good performance to anyone who may be less knowledgeable about piano.