I'm not invoking any moderator cred to win an argument, but merely because you started down the 'you're not helpful' road which is silly because I've offered as much real life experience with the issue as you have. Being a mod it's in my code to try and be helpful.

moot, not mute (again, trying to be helpful).

That they're still around doesn't necessarily mean they're not a gimmick.

The vertical compliance issue is one that's been discussed at length in these forums, and blogs far and wide. There's no universal way to measure bike manufactures claims, and clearly where the rubber meets the road has a significant impact on the feel of a ride. So two identical bikes with the only variance being an ISP vs a similarly shaped movable post…you'd have a hard time convincing me that there's any real world difference that you wouldn't forget about by the time got the first scratch.