As a violinist I disagree with your conclusion. There are a lot of valid criticisms about those studies, including some from musicians who participated. There's also a notable conflict of interest in that the PI is a violin maker and has a vested interest in proving the quality of modern instruments. I summarized the research and criticisms in a Reddit comment[1] a while back.
There are so many subjective components to sound preferences and value it's simply impossible to make claims like "nothing unique about it sounds compared to other high-quality violins", "value comes primarily from its artistic and historical nature rather its sound quality", or "There are modern instruments which sound better"
There are so many subjective components to sound preferences and value it's simply impossible to make claims like "nothing unique about it sounds compared to other high-quality violins", "value comes primarily from its artistic and historical nature rather its sound quality", or "There are modern instruments which sound better"
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/ug0an2/why_cant...