That's the thing about this than kinda makes my brain work too hard.
Perceived recoil vs. actual recoil. With the heavier buffers, you perceived less recoil because of the slower action. But, it's moving heavier parts with same force, pretty much.
With the heavier mass comes a DIFFERENT recoil impulse. Some like it, some don't. It seems to be split between light recoil with lightened parts and regulated gas, or full gas with heavier parts.
I'm in the middle ground. Reliability is most important to me, and I'll learn to deal with whatever recoil impulse that brings. You got allot of different reliable recipes, but that reliability is judged differently.
I like the Armalite recoil spring because it offers that Goldilocks amount for me personally. I like the carbine setup with H3 or slightly heavier buffer. This has been the most reliable for me in the few large frame build I've done. I've tried a few different recipes, but always come back to that.
One guy i built one for, i ended up using a carbine buffer system with a spacer on his rifle length system. He wanted fixed stock, but when didn't like the impulse from the rifle buffer. He was weird, but swapped it out and he's been happy ever since.
My recipe for reliability is 100rds in 5 mag dumps with no failures. Then, goto 500rds with no cleanings. That's for every gun i come in possession of. I've been told by allot that's too critical, but then i ask, how much assurance do you need for your firearms to do their job?
500rds with ZERO hiccups, and ran hard, is what i need.