On some games I have done it. In some cases it made a difference, in others it was not noticeable.

Wiring does increase resistance with age so upping the voltage helps.

What operators did back in the day.. is no concern of mine. I want to play a fun game.

Then this would be a problem with mid-70's game with DC power and solid state games as well would it not? There is no difference in the posts, plastics and most elastics from the 60's to the 80's. If the plastics and posts can survive DC powered poppers and flippers than a little high tap on an older unit is a gentle kiss in comparison.

The most wear I see are on playfields from dragging flippers, rusty balls, saucer eject points, outholes, etc.

Abuse and neglect.

It is all a case by case basis, I have a different experience.

I have a Gottlieb with 2" flippers which was a snooze-fest so I high tapped it, which only made it marginally better.

So I ordered up a set of yellow dot coils planning on "low tapping" when they arrived.

Once the coils were installed I found the game was "just right" and left it that way. It gets played almost daily and just inspected the playfield last week when I swapped out the new and somewhat unreliable incandescent 47 bulbs they sell now with Comet sunlight LED for the GI lighting.

Everything looked perfect, nothing abnormal of note. Star Action and Night Rider moves the ball far harder about the table than my high tapped and yellow dotted Domino. Night Rider in particular has some brutal ball action up in the poppers.

3" vs 2" flippers.

Longer flipper is going to have a bunch more leverage behind it. Think adding a cheater bar to a tire wrench.

Come to think of it, I don't think any of my 3" games are high tapped, just a few of the 2" ones.

I was thinking of an analogy like when you are using a pipe wrench and you add a bar to get more leverage.

3" flipper = longer pipe wrench