joelmoskowitz
I would certainly agree that the wear and tear on a wooden plane is minimal for an amateur and minimal for anyone using a power jointer and planer. I quite like single iron wooden planes and while fussier than my metal body planes they have a great feel. And of course in my life time the only was I would wear one out is by excessive, ignorant, and possible unnecessary constant re-tuning of the sole.
What I like about my Norris A5 is that it is extremely forgiving on tricky wood.

But this is my basic point - from a function difference for different planing technologies there is no important difference. Everything works. The more experience you have the more consistently great results you will have. There is no practical difference in performance due to weight. That being said we all have personal preferences, light vs heavy, old vs new, wood vs metal, Japanese versus English, etc.

Let me rephrase this another way. I doubt anyone would argue that a sharp iron works better than a dull iron. This is accepted as fact. I also would argue that there are so many exceptions to the case for a heavy plane vs a light plane that making a general rule that would be accepted as fact is impossible.