maybe a unbiased group of people should make a video, like a mythbusters approach and test playfields from different eras and do a good video to explain once and for all the differences between the eras of playfields, the types of wood, the layers, types of clear and then perform a series of tests
- Janka Hardness Tests
- ball drop tests
- automatic shot - loop, impact etc
and gather some true data along with before and after still images.
Yes timber is most probably softer now due to the demand across the globe and instead of hard ply layers throughout it is just on the exterior. For environmental reasons clearcoats are changing and going to a more flexible and forgiving clears
But there are still some quality issues as the clears shouldn't peel up at the shooter lane within a few hundred games so then that alone gets people concerned and question quality.
