Of course we’re both entitled to our own opinions about EBA. But the general consensus isn’t about either of our opinions, it’s quantifiable.
I was bored this morning waiting for an MOT and had time to waste for once. So to arrive at the above estimate, I searched the forum for EBA in the subject. I found 5 threads specifically about EBA over a 4 year period. There were 22 direct opinions about the effect of EBA (I didn’t count double opinions in the same thread twice). Of those -
2 expressed they heard no difference (although one of these was in the context of a suspected system/setup fault).
2 people were unsure: 1 thought there might be a difference, but questioned their own expectation bias, 1 thought there was a difference in some setups/music and not in others.
18 people were unequivocally positive.
Discarding those who were undecided either way, that leaves 2 negatives and 18 positives.
11 % negative
89 % positive
If you are generous and include the undecideds as negative, that still gives 4 negatives and 18 positives.
22% negative
78% positive
As noted in the above quotes, most who expressed a positive opinion were very enthusiastic, not mildly so.
My conclusion from the above is that, regardless of what you or I personally think, the general consensus is that EBA was not a damp squib.