I played a lot of fixed axle today with several different woods from the last 20 years to offer an objective answer to this question. However some of my favorite players don’t have either response system and are just smooth wood or paint like my old BC/ What’s Next and legendary Tom Kuhn Flying Camel. What they have in common are maple axles and gaps around 2.75mm. I played some “Facegrain Recessed”, like the Hildy Brothers Azalea with one of the smaller diameter response areas but has 8 drilled response holes per half, compared to an OUT Cheap Thrills with only 3 drilled holes per half, but they also have gaps around 2.75mm. As far “Endgrain Response” I always enjoy YYF Legend Wings, they feel consistent out of the box but also play great once broken in after a while, the ProFly and ProYos are also just classics with great consistent response and playability. The newer TMBRs walnut axles are tight at the center around 2.2mm when I measured some spares axles. I think gap does have the most impact on the consistancy of response. Hence if you look at yoyo design history of the early 2000s it was all based on gap adjustments which lead to the unresponsive movement. Even the TK SB2, one of the earliest gap adjustable throws lack of response with a widen gap, lead to the release of Turbo Disk a precursor to the Friction Sticker and modern silicone pads. In one of @edhaponik YYE tutorials he mentions his preferd gap width as 2 US dimes which is also equal to 2.75mm. So for me I have no real preference in response type as long as its executed and not shredding strings. My real preference is gap width, and I’m a fan of gaps close to 2.75mm, when gaps get around 3mm and above I start having trouble with response.