this is just a friendly reminder that newtonian physics has been superseded by the theory of relativity. it doesn't matter much on small scales, so we keep using newtonian physics in engineering. but, when you're talking about large scales like those used in planetary mechanics, newton was simply completely wrong.

jupiter's pull on the earth is not large. but, deducing that it is therefore negligible is classical thinking - it's wrong.

rather you want to think of the solar system as a number of objects suspended in a kind of ether. no, i'm not bringing back the ether (einstein disproved the ether.), but it was a useful conceptual idea for so long for a reason. you don't want to think in terms of equal and opposite forces (although they're there). you want to think in terms of plucking a string.

so, imagine that jupiter and earth are connected with a string. it would be a a very thin string, granted. but, plucking it is going to set of all kinds of vibrations, which are going to propagate in all kinds of directions. and, it's the fields that are going to interact - not in terms of how strong the inverse law is, but in terms of what the change is.

so, it's not |g| that's important. it's delta g that's important. and, it's also delta g that's unpredictable.

for, removing even the smallest piece of a jenga tower can take the whole thing down.

my position is that it's an active research topic. you're better off looking it up than listening to me. but, throwing away tidal drag when it is an active research topic is just ignorant.

i merely seek to draw your attention to your ignorance.