This all reminds me of the sounds produced by tube amps using different brands of tubes. Also, how all the purest who will only play through tube amps put a transistor effects pedal first thing in the signal chain...

Obviously, different brands, sizes, and types of materials, as well as how they are wound (for example, flat wound), guitar setup, the amount of string bending, the style of music played, and several other factors all affect sound.

One must be comfortable playing the guitar, which is a significant factor in considering string choice.
If I could only get 14-gauge strings, no matter how good they sounded, I would stop playing guitar.

Sometimes, Rick and other people on the internet just need something to talk about, no matter how meaningless it is.

Billy