I read that site, and I read Jobst Brandt's book and I believe them both for the most part. I think that the reason that people are so skeptical is the assertion that the wheels "stand" on the bottom spokes. This is kind of a trollish statement and if Jobst wasn't nearly always right about things I think people would write him off as a newsgroup troll. The fact the he's willing to study and measure things that most people only devote idle speculation to gets my respect but I wish he'd be a little more diplomatic about it.

Sure, the bottom few spokes and a small contact patch on the rim experience a great majority of the deflection and change in tension. From "The Bicycle Wheel" though, I get the impression that bike wheels work in spite of this, not because of it. The whole spoke standing business is because rims are vertically compliant and serve mostly to resist compression (along the circumference) and tension (in the nipple holes) from the spokes, not because of anything fundamental about spoked wheels. In the book he says that stiffer rims increase the size of the contact patch. This makes for a less striking finite element analysis picture because it expands the region of "standing" spokes beyond those near the ground. It also improves longevity because it reduces metal fatigue in the spokes (only my impression, I am not a materials scientist and I don't have the book handy).