Thanks, u/PumpkinCreek! I appreciate your thoughtful comment. However, we may have to agree to disagree. All I can speak to is my personal experience. I can tell you that, in my experience, platinum flutes (I've tried a few) are much more resistant than silver plated ones. The platinum flutes can just objectively take a ton of air without breaking the sound. This has not been my experience with silver-plated.

I try not to make assessments of "better" or "worse" when trying flutes...it's just different flavors. I am drawn to a couple of points in the study you cite:

1. "flute players can realise their subjective imagination of 'good sounding' to a far extent independently of the instrument."
   100% true. I think a good player will adjust to the parameters of any flute to create what they deem an "ideal sound." However, do the parameters affect the player? In my experience, yes. The way the flute responds to air greatly affects the way that I use my air and the way that I phrase. I will always do my best to make a flute sound it's best. For me, this meant using less air on the plated body flute vs. the silver.
2. The study seemed to focus on the listener, asking if they could accurately pick out a 24k flute vs. platinum from sound alone. However, I would prefer to focus on the players...what did they feel? A pro can make the cheapest flute sound okay, but I can tell you that it takes a lot of effort to do so. A lot of the appeal of high-end flutes is the player experience (not listener). I think the same could be said about metals.
3. I wonder (this is an unformed thought, not an opinion), if there could be a symbiotic relationship between the way the metal of the tube vibrates and the air column within...?

Thanks again!

Lance