Anyone try stuffing their ports?

I have used plastic drinking straws to fill the ports similar to a method used by Meridian and then ProAc.

Using plastic straws on my Mirage M3's changed nothing until there was a sustained bass note like a pipe organ, for example. The straws then prevented the woofer from oscillating. The improvement in such cases is dramatic. The Reference Recording "Star of Wonder" has such a sustained bass at the beginning of the "Nativity Carol".

I have always been suspicious of port stuffing as a technically valid solution. If a speaker was designed to operate with a port, how can it be correct to plug the port, thereby making it a virtually sealed box?

There is still some energy transfer even with the port being filled (not sealed). It has more to do with the room than the speaker.

I think ports are used strictly to achieve lower freqs. instead of increasing the size of the box. That said, assuming correct, does stuffing the ports change any other characteristics of the sound other than just low freq. output? For example, if the drivers being ported are also intended for mid freqs., would mid freq sound be affected as well in any way?