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In my humble opinion, this is not quite the right understanding of a mirror match.
I haven't played a single game on it yet where the development was identical to my opponent's. The point of a mirror match is not to try to play in a predictable way, but rather to confuse your opponent. And from a purely gameplay perspective, it's in a mirror match that you can truly realize your vision of the map and have fun. So, you shouldn't be looking at your opponent; instead, you should do what will give you an advantage when you meet.

I didn't say anything about having identical development with the opponent, or maybe I didn't convey my thought clearly. What I mean is that there's an understanding of what the map contains (both yours and your opponent's), and a constant comparison of what you have and what your opponent has achieved. There's a constant awareness of where your opponent is, whether they are behind or ahead of your development – and this prevents you from enjoying the game. This is why the standard strategy is unpopular and why so few people sign up for the mirror match tournament. For this reason, it's advisable to play mirror matches closer to the final stage of the tournament. The same applies to panic and balance strategies, but for a different reason: their lack of depth and uninteresting gameplay. It's not very interesting to accumulate stacks of levels 1-4 in order to break through to the center in the early stages of week 3. There are exceptions, and I don't claim to have a complete assessment of these strategies, but that's my opinion.