Exhaust leaked are magnified when more is flowing thru it at higher rpms.
Weird but I just had a loud ticking noise and found the #4 spark plug backed out. Just enough to make it loud but not enough to totally kill performance.
Just a thought.
I understand where you are coming from with the exhaust leak while making noise under load. The thing is it only ticks while gassing it and while in motion. If I just gas it sitting still it doesn't tick!
