Very interesting. Sort of what I expected with moving baits, though I bet there's not a lot of difference with techniques where sensitivity is more important as well. A properly built custom rod on any blank is better than almost every production rod out there.
Assuming that it turns out that people aren't noticing differences between the rods on other techniques as well, the question that will crop up next for me is whether I can convince myself to just buy the cheaper blanks when I go to building something for myself! My ego might not allow it...