What a fun little "absolutely no ill intentions to begin a flame war" way of starting a thread

But it depends. If we're talking just water then wet lube might protect the chain better. However all manner of gunk sticks to wet lube so in the end your chain might not be rusty but it'll be black with an abrasive lapping paste. With wax, the gunk doesn't adhere so no lapping paste to worry about.

Also if we're talking slightly more difficult conditions, like salted roads, the salt sticks inside the chain with wet lube or wax.

So if you want to get rid of gunk or salt the chain needs to be flushed regularly. With wax since there's no gunk to speak of, boiling water or just hot wax will do the trick (but with hot wax the gunk is then in the wax, so I prefer water). With oil you pretty much need a solvent of some sort as the gunk sticks really tightly especially inside the chain. I had one chain that had been used for a few hundred kilometeres with the factory grease before flushing it. It was completely black when I stuck it in naphta and after a week of soaking and agitating it still wasn't clean. It actually still isn't as some of caked black stuff just won't move no matter how many times I wax it.

So if you're not riding in perfect conditions all the time, it comes down to how you want to flush the chain. With solvents or water. I can see the preference for both but I've found wax to be overall a much cleaner and easier way.