This will probably just be more info leading to no conclusion, but:

1. I've read about data (I believe Jason Holland gathered - Jason, you watching this?) that showed 205 Toyos were 2-3 MPH faster down the backstraight in Atlanta than a 205 Hoosier. Whether that's from section width or stickiness of rubber or construction of tire/sidewall is up to you to decide....but I know (as we all do) that the stack of 4 Hoosier 205/50 was significantly taller than the stack of 205/50 Toyos.

1.a. In St. Louis last October I was clocked with about a 2 MPH advantage down the front straight of the roval. I was on Toyos, while pretty much everyone else was on Hoosiers. There was one other car with similar trap speeds back in the pack a bit; not sure what tire he was running.

2. A friend tried the Avon tires in both 205 and 225 width last year on his SM. The Avon tires have roughly the same true section width as the Hoosiers (W-I-D-E). He took the 225s off after a single session - didn't like the feel vs the Hoosier. A couple weekends later he tried the 205 Avon vs the 205 Hoosier, and was happier. Not enough to make the switch permanent, but happier. Unfortunately, no direct comparison of 225 vs 205 Avon.

Sorry there's nothing scientific in this to truly answer the question, but you may find correlating data that begins to paint a picture eventually....

Jarrod