Hylix carbon fork and compression plug I have an Origin8 compression plug 90mm long with recommended torque of 8Nm. But it can't be inserted fully into the Hylix carbon fork I bought online as there's lots of epoxy blocking the tube in the last 10mm of space the plug requires to be fully inserted (given the length to which the steerer has been cut, ~7 inches, 17.5cm). The obstruction extends up to about 9cm above the fork crown. Rather than try to drill some of that stuff out, I bought a slightly shorter plug that is only 81mm in length.
The recommended torque for the 81mm plug is 10Nm (per the manufacturer's website).  I can't find any technical info on Hylix, so I'm wondering if 10Nm is OK, as it is a good deal higher than recommended torque on the Origin8.
The Whisky compression plug instructions say to tighten their plug to only 1.6Nm, so clearly there must be quite a difference in the design of these plugs, or quite a wide range of opinion on the proper torque, or that number is a typo.
Is there any way the consumer can make fact-based judgments on such things? Is the thickness of the steerer tube wall the determining factor? It is 2.65mm

“People often make the mistake of thinking that the plug is solely to
preload the headset bearings,” he [Raoul Luescher of Luescher Teknik in Melbourne, Australia] said. “However, due to most carbon
steerers not having much in the way of hoop strength, due to the
difficulty in laying down 90-degree fibers in a production environment
with the process used, the plug is important to contain the hoop loads
from the stem clamp. Thus I do not recommend ultralight or poorly
designed or installed plugs in most steerer tubes as we see lots of
cases of delamination caused by the stem clamp.”

https://cyclingtips.com/2017/05/cane-creek-eenut-review/
Some things to consider:

The plugs only purpose is to be strong enough to not move up when you tighten the headset down.
The steerer will be clamped by the stem, so the stem will reinforce the steerer once clamped.
The top cap recommended torque is probably 4-6Nm.
Support the top of the steerer from crushing. Although it is often recomended to add a 5mm spacer ontop of the stem so the top of the stem in not flush with the top of the steerer to help with this.

So my advice if you're worried about the steerer's integrity would be tighten the plug to a lower spec than you think and try it with the top cap, only tighten the plug further if the top cap pulls it up.
As the stem will clamp the steerer with more force than the plug expands with, you shouldn't worry about the plug damaging your steerer as you ride.
So, torque specs are in general only advisory in the sense that they will a min and max value. If you're careful and mindful of what you're doing, you don't need to look at the plug torque at all, just tighen enough so it doesn't ride up, making sure at no point you pass a damaging amount of torque (more than 10-13Nm in this case).