there is such a thing as wheel stiffness, though it's a lot easier to quantify if you have brakes on your bike

For example, I just got some American Classic 420s on my road bike, and noticed brake rub when really hammered on climbs. I swapped the front wheel from my other road bike, a Fulcrum Racing 5, and the brake rub was diminished but still present. I then threw on the beefy wheel off my track bike, a dura ace hub laced to a dt swiss rr 1.2 and while I could tell a difference in braking, the most noticeable difference was that nothing I could do would flex the wheel to any degree.