Hey Winedrinker sorry for the delay.. and thanks for pointing out the obvious...again. Lols.
Wine drinking itself is not a double blind or even blind study styled pursuit - ideally.
The bottle is selected via the label, the heritage appraised and discussed, it's poured and then assessed as either A) piss, or B) not piss.
These experts could not pick that the white had been coloured with red food dye and they all described the taste in red terms. Lols.
The other study, most classified the non piss as piss when put in a cheap bottle and reclassified it as non piss when decanted out the fancy bottle. Lols
Lets not forget the wine frauds that are uncovered frequently ( not from complaints as to authenticity of flavour mind you )....lols
Wine drinking, unless for effect or the possible heart benefits of red, is, essentially, for posturing wankers.
Bottoms up Drew.
How does this relate to amp sims ? Well the listener is expecting a sound - they dont know whether its a real or sim but they either like the sound ( not piss ) or they dont ( piss )...It is, however presented to them as a guitar amp sound.
Not sure on the rest of this thread as I have stepped in on your post but I am guessing that any HR expert who claims to be able to detect a real from sim will provide plenty of caveats in their identification.
"I am not in the ideal listening environment"
"They all sound suss to me - even if its real, i dont like the way it was recorded"
"Wouldn't stand repeated listens if looped ad nauseam for 6 hours"
...and other face saving bs to protect their vested interest.