I think the OP's question has been answered ten fold.

This isn't an argument, by any means. You are correct that it is a matter of opinion.
I'm not even going to attempt to fool with looking at those articles since you didn't even post them correctly. I do see that in the majority of those links, they are home audio oriented. Not the same thing as Car audio. Sound to one person can be something totally different to someone else.
Your comment about cones seizing up from under power? I don't need an article to tell me how that works. I have seen it. Keep in mind, the systems that I build for people aren't typically for the normal person. My systems are based on the knowledge that I know they are going to push them, and they are gonna push'em hard. Try doing that on speaker that's underpowered. I would hope that most people are smart enough to know that when they hear speaker dsitortion, that they need to turn it down a bit, but I tell you what, when you have 8 speakers or more in a vehicle, try hearing distortion over the woofers. You wont be able to hear very much.

Now, take a look at the crap wire that's in our rams from the factory. That's what, and 18 gauge IIRC? You can't sit perched on that chair and tell me that a speaker that needs 75+ Watts RMS is going to operate to it's BEST efficiency on that small of wire.

You are right, larger wires are harder to hide, but not impossible. If you think it is, you just simply aren't creative enough to do the job.

It's a personal belief, and you wont ever catch me building a system with 16 or 18 gauge wire. It's never going to happen.

 

I supposes you could cut up an RCA cable and connect the aftermarket stereo's line level output to the factory wiring that way, but that's not exactly plug and play and you'd lose the shielding. But as was stated, the Infinity amps are so low power and most stereos today are at least 45 watts per channel X4, so why would you want to do this? You'd also lose the fader function and be unable to balance front and rear. It makes more sense to simply eliminate the Infinity crap and use your new stereo's onboard amps. Again, I did it this way and my system sounds superb.

 

if wired channel for channel you would retain all funtions balance and fader functions but only if you had a head unit with front and rear low outputs (rca's) but again i agree it waould sound just as bad if not worse than factory so why?
Laramie
I only posted the links that way because some forums dont allow live links to be posted and I do that to keep it simple for me.... but basically many of the links touch on the fact that 16 gauge wire has been scientifically measured to provide enough power for at LEAST 300 watts rms and 600 watts max with no signal degregation when dealling with lenths of up to 25 feet on a 4 ohm system....(plenty long enough for just about all vehicles let alone rams) and most aftermarket mids and highs dont go over 100 -120 watts rms even on competition level.(most 800watt 4 channel amps only output 80 to 120 watts rms per channel at the most in a 4 ohm load) and creativity has nothing to do in some cercumstances with hiding wires that are too large I have some small cars and had to run the power externally on my vette for the amps as it was why rip my whole interior apart for no gain in performance? just trying to save people money time and headache by stating the facts and no conjecture..
l'll just agree to disagree and we will leave it at that....afterall I once thought the same thing as you about the wire thanks to my local car stereo shops selling it too me at $3 a foot when I was younger....

 

Yup yup, We will have to part paths on this topic. You preach what you want, and I'll preach what I want. Life rolls on.