Another problem is that applications that try to implement smooth scroll for wheel events will actually drop events or screw up the animation, making the unlocked scroll useless or just as slow as normal.
Do you have an example application that does that? Used such Mouse a long time on Windows and now on Mac but never experienced that.
As a general rule anything that scroll jacks is quickly removed from my computer or browser tab
Smooth scrolling for wheel events works fine in Firefox on Linux, speed and all. I have such a momentum wheel Logitech mouse. (I almost always leave the clicks engaged, the wheel can still keep going for quite a distance if flicked hard enough.)