With regards to benchmarking, there is a chinese saying “人比人，气死人” (You will only anger yourself when comparing yourself against others).
When it comes to benchmarking, perhaps it is most useful when comparing against similar projects within the same organisation since the baselines (company culture, company structure, etc.) should be the same. However, what is most important is that project reporting is truthful and the management is willing to accept deviations from the benchmark if there are valid reasons.
Problem is, we’re talking about corporate flexibility when it comes to standards. “Flexible standards” comes close to being an oxymoron, and few are the corporations that have management willing to commit to such an undertaking.