Yes, what you said is exactly true. The plate material definitely affects flexibility. A PC plate will have greater flex than a steel plate. If you want greater flex, it is actually better to opt for a half plate or plateless build for maximum flex, but of course, you are sacrificing the stability of switches and sound. Of course, the mounting style also affects the flex. A gasket-mounted keyboard typically has greater flex than a traditional tray-mount keyboard. However, the plate material definitely affects it more.

Edit: Of course, I want to note that these assumptions are based upon the sources here: Ways to manipulate sound profile of keyboard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N8k0u75eLQ&t=603s&ab_channel=Keybored

Methods determining flex: https://www.keyboard.university/200-courses/plate-materials-sizes-9yn46

https://www.keyboard.university/200-courses/keyboard-mounting-styles-4lpp7

Sound is subjective in my opinion. I would say you shouldn’t trust what people say about differences or similarities due to environmental factors like different setups, different mics used to record, different interpretations, …etc. Instead utilize mods to adjust sounds to your liking by applying a mod then testing it out. Worrying about sound differences between different PCBs when there are other factors that affect it more wouldn’t do you any good.

See this is what most confuses me. What should you propose that runners or companies do as a decision making standpoint that offers a scaleable option to improve the timeline of meeting deadlines while also maintaining the same level of quality and service? Proposing the idea that they should just “work harder” to meet the deadlines is not a solution, it is just complaining about the issue. Let’s say you were doing this as a GB runner or manufacturer, what would you do to improve your production level to meet client’s deadlines and expectations? You say yourself “no GB host knows what he/she is doing and we should pick them better”. Going by that logic, if no one knows what they are doing, well, what would you tell them so that they understand what they should do to meet deadlines? Again, prove me wrong by drawing up a scalable solution that companies can implement so that all companies can meet the deadlines they set.

Look, I don't get why when everyone complains about GB deadlines, no one proposes an efficient and optimized solution to it. Everyone already is dealing with the same issues as you. Complaining about a problem doesn't help fix the issue. At this point, quit complaining about it on the internet and do something to fix it. Propose a solution that would hold manufacturers and GB runners accountable or something. I would love to have someone prove me wrong and fix this group buy deadline issue because at this point it doesn't seem likely that people will. Literally complaining about them doesn't do anything.

Well yeah, with that cable management, no wonder.