Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybolos, at least some of these used a windlass to rearm. That may explain part of the speed difference over one using a separate lever or one that’s rearmed purely by hand.
These weapons also may have given up on some firing power for firing frequency.
Yeah, I was thinking maybe the entire speed advantage was the windlass and had nothing to do with the auto bolt feeder.
Maybe it's harder to deal with ten projectiles in a minute followed by a nine minute reload than one a minute for ten minutes?
Even a short surprise can be crucial in an ancient battle, where breaking formation can be fatal
Breaking a calvary would be very powerful. And horses are a larger target.
I'm not even considering the magazine reload time, just the time between shots assuming a full mag. That's 10 recharges either way, as shown in the videos. It's not like a machine gun where the energy is in the powder.