This! Time and again I get confirmation of this. Just recently a guy I used to ski with came to me and said he was going to “downgrade” from F.I. 130 (Tecnica Mach 1 first gen) to 110. Because 130 “was too stiff”. After years of discussions with him, and others, about the fact that 130 or higher might not have been fit for purpose (at the time of the discussions)
I guess that 110/120 F.I. Is not “macho” enough for many, until they realize that “free” skiing in a 130 (or higher) F.I. does more harm than good, if one is not able to correctly perform with it.
Changing angle, I,again just recently, skied two different boots side by side (check my pic in the 2023-2024 logged days thread) one Tecnica R9.8 F.I. 110 and one Dalbello DRS W.C. F.I. S.S. (Where “S.S.” Stands for “Super Soft”, not “Super Stiff”). Difference in stiffness and boots widths aside (one as the name says, 98mm, the other 93mm), the foot in the Dalbello felt as I had it in an high heeled cowboy boot, compared to a much flatter stance of the foot in the Tecnica…this confirmed me what (sore hips for days aside caused by the obvious disalignement, but hey, it was Carnival) I was suspecting, the Dalbellos being more forward (and stiffer) were pushing me in the backseat, rather than helping me stay forward. To obtain that in those boots I must do a conscious efforts, less so in the Tecnica.
I was using the liners from the Dalbellos for both feet , as I have better “feelings and feedback” in a fully laced up liner, btw.