Neil, do you know of any truely unbiased scientific studies?
Heh. Sure. Do I know any unbiased studies on sunglass optics, no.
You can do your own study pretty easily. Find an independent optician who doesn't carry plano sunglasses, and ask him or her to test some samples for you. Of course, you'd have to provide your own samples, which would be a problem for most of you.
That's what I did, and I base my recommendations to my clients from that.
Oakley truly deserve the public view that their lenses are the best on the market; they did extremely well, just not as well as you'd think if the Private Pilot shootouts were all you had to go on.