Is Direct Drive Really Better?

This is truly a case of getting the cart before the horse ...and arguing that it belongs there.
The real issue is what performs better in actuality and not what should sound better. If we find that we are getting better results from one approach, then theorizing about why is appropriate but speculation about which SHOULD be better is pretty useless.
The question that started this discussion asked which IS better, not which should be.

Goodness me, I never realized that intra-analog vitriol was just as rampant as the digital-analog variety! But I for one don't find the arguments particularly strong on either side. And I don't think it's even possible to do a fair listening comparison of these two drive technologies, because I doubt you could hold everything else in the system constant.

Isn't the DD-vs-belt debate really a question of which technology offers the better trade-off between speed accuracy and rumble? And while not everything can be measured, isn't it true that those two things can be? So let's see some numbers--preferably independently verified. Where's the belt-drive table that is the equal of any DD in speed accuracy, and bests DD on rumble? Where's the DD unit that can say the same in reverse? Granted, this wouldn't settle the debate--measurements never do--but it would at least give us something solid to sink our teeth into.

Screw the numbers. Trust yer ears. I don't see why at least a very close approximation of a controlled setting which would allow a one-to-one-to-one comparison of table/arm/cart combos could not be accomplished. At least enough so that one could make a case for THEIR listening preference (what counts most). Many have done so informally and anecdotally. And, to the extent they are satisfied with their choices ends the argument in their minds. Personally I’d rather sink my teeth into the music I hear than the numbers I see on a sheet of paper, but I understand you desire to have something more seemingly solid.

Tom, my arguments address the conversation that deals with why one technology is better than the other, which has been the dominant conversation in this thread. That's not the question you asked, but it's where the discussion has gone.

I don't count myself among the audiophiles who do not care to ask why but just accept what they hear as true. It's a fine line, of course, but to abandon reason and critical thinking is unacceptable to me. If belt drive superiority proves to have been a distortion that the market adopted wholesale 25 years ago, it is partly because we accepted the erroneous arguments for why it was superior. Same will be true here if we buy into statements such as "pushes the platter instead of pulls it" without critically examining their merits.