yeah. i do think it gives them a slight edge. i also think some miners might make that bet. mining is a brutal business. many have come and gone. if getting blocks through a few seconds faster means other miners switch to their new block the chances of the block remaining on the best chain are increased.

but conversely, nonspammy transactions are inherently more numerous, so te signature verificarion time is slightly more.

i think the most important lesson this experiment will teach is that when technical arguments are equivocal, moral and first principles arguments define the outcome.

but until there is an alternative to taproot, with its intentional enabling of big blocks, for neater lightning transactions, it is just a demonstration of what is essentially the ooposite of a fork - a feature addition. it is a deprecation. a clear statement from bitcoiners that they consider taproot to be a mistake.