Well, just to be sure we keep it all straight, nobody has suggested that a CDR could "better" the original CD (aluminum, gold or otherwise) under any conditions. Rather, the basic premise is that you can make a copy of a CD onto a CDR and have the CDR be a perfect bit-image of the original. It's also very easy to make a "copy" that isn't a perfect bit-image of the original. It appears that a lot of people making comparisons between orginal CDs and CDR copies aren't sure of whether the CDR is the former or the latter. It seems safe to say that, regardless of how much difference somebody hears in the perfect bit-image copy vs. the original, that the non-perfect bit-image will sound more different, undoubtedly for the worse.
I agree with you that beauty is in the ears of the beholder, and that's what makes this a great hobby. If you place significant value on bits stored on a particular kind of CD over identical bits on another, more power to you.
I do have to disagree on the comment about the Pioneer fellow - if he listens to my system and says he hears no difference, I'm gonna tell him he's full of it - my mother could hear a difference :-) Now, if he says the difference isn't worth the cost differential, I'm not going to try to change his mind about that.