Strict parity (SP) is the evaluation contract used in this paper to compare graph-aware RAG systems on a like-for-like basis. Under SP, the following are fixed across all compared systems in the headline comparisons: the encoder, the dense candidate pool size, the top-$k$ cutoff, the data split, and the matching rule that decides when a retrieved item counts as correct. By fixing these five interface choices, any remaining performance difference between systems can be attributed to the graph/retrieval policy itself rather than to drift in the retrieval interface. Token-cap effects are analyzed separately under a shared serialization policy and are not part of the SP headline contract.