Stern does nothing wrong BS - *every* playfield that is made of *wood* (and that includes virtually every playfield) dimples from ball drops. QED. Bally, Williams, Capcom, and yes, Stern.
Perhaps not visible through rose coloured glasses, but they all dimple. All my WMS games have simples, even my BBB has some.
Strangeways has a WD full of dimples. I doubt he is making it up.
But what I notices a lot was that the WMS and Capcom games from the 1990's seem to hold up generally well, and better than a lot of Stern games I looked at recently out of box on site at the local Timezone where I go to play their latest games. I suspect that it is as much to do with where the ply is/was sourced as the clear.
But from first hand experience of having playfields clearcoated by experts like Tim & Stu, the Pinball Magic which has the sh!t played out of it by my mate who has it, has an amazingly low amount of dimpling. No it's not proof, but at least reasonable empirical evidence that clear coating by an expert compared to Stern churn 'em out thincoat holds up better.
