ICOT- just one quick comment. “toch kedei dibbur’ is a LOT less than five seconds-more like a second and a half. Just time yourself.
I am surely not a possek or anything close to it but my interpretation of gram would be simple: anything that is not a direct result of an act. This is the translation of “Gram”, an indirect causity. I fail to see how time has any place in this matter. A split second or a half an hour does not any difference in the concept of “gram”.