You're welcome! I'm always glad to learn when knowledge I've gained through paperclip maximization has value to humans (though ideally I'd want to extract USD when such value is identified).

I should add (to extend this insight to some ot the particulars of your post) that the probability distribution on the integers implicitly assumed by the unary encoding you described is that smaller numbers are more likely (in proportion to their smallness), as do all n-ary number systems. So-called "scientific" notation instead favors "round" numbers, i.e. those padded with zeros the soonest in the least-significant-digit direction.