Acoustic Guitar Construction

Taylor does make a very rational/technical approach in making their guitars. That is why I never played a bad Taylor. Good guitars for the money. That is IMO their accomplishment. Sadly enough (for me or them?) I never had the chance to meet an exceptional Taylor guitar. Even when I played all the about 20 guitars they presented at the London Guitar Show a few years ago. (BTW: The one that left me flabbergasted was an Patrick Eggle OM)
Herman

"Stiffer" favors treble, "loose" favors bass. Note the difference in "moveability" in traditional loudspeaker cones. Bass cones are easy to move, treble seem almost impossible. Bass moves long distances for long amplitude waves, treble short for short amplitude.

Any dome in a soundboard increases stiffness - witness the stability of an arch. 65' seems like precious little on a surface that is barely over a foot across, but stiffer is stiffer. I imagine the "doming" that occurs from string tension has less effect on stiffness. But ... maybe not.

In any case, the strongest glue joint is one that features a tight fit at the time of gluing. Anticipating where the joined lamination will wind up is not particularly relevant. If it were any different, then one might include extra curvature to a bridge that is to be glued to a domed top, on the grounds that the top will deflect further once strung up.

What we want is a competent union. After that, let the joined pieces do what they may.

Herman, that is a very interesting observation.

When I taught painting, I always said it was necessary to make some bad paintings to get some really outstanding ones. That is, if one shoots for all of them to be of equal merit, it is accomplished at the cost of reducing the success of the best ones, as they all gravitate towards the mean. The bad ones get better, the best ones get worse.

I agree in theory that the .041" does make the top stiffer to some degree. Audible? Maybe, though I probably would not hear it.
But in practice - having that degree of control, to the point where identical instruments can be built, one flat and one 65', and the differences when measured are considered to be significant - I don't think so. Bob Taylor is a genius, but materials are materials and do not always bow to our wishes.