Quoted from o-din:n many cases mylar gets dull not because of the surface, but because of the adhesive underneath. No amount of polishing can take that out.
In the case of a painted hardtop that would be noticeable probably only in the insert areas or where there is no artwork.
Hardtops don’t have adhesive over the inserts, so that is not an issue
Quoted from Tsskinne:Flash Gordon has been at my location for 6 months now with hardtop. I've legitimately had top ranked players not know it was a hardtop until I told them. I don't think it plays much different in general, it looks great, and it is holding up amazingly on location. Anyway if anyone wants to come play on feel free to check it out at North End Pub in Lafayette, IN it isn't going anywhere.
Similar experience. I took my hardtop Flash Gordon to Bat City Open 2019, a circuit event. Nothing but praise from the tournament players. Several said it was the best playing FG they’ve ever encountered. Most assumed it was just a restored/CPR playfield. Keep in mind, tournament players are notoriously picky about these things (god help you if you put super bands in a tournament). So yeah, my informal single blind experiment shows that no one notices any negative differences in playability, including some of the best players in the world.