"I am sure this is due to the thin finish on the RW."
Dave is getting toothless. Very worrying that is.
Scientific evidence laid in its grave, sigh!
I just bit my tongue and kept quiet. But now that you're intent on stirring up trouble:
Compared to the American Standard, the Road Worn has different pickups, frets, neck radius, tuners, and bridge, and it doesn't have the graphite rods in the neck. It's much closer to the American Vintage than the American Standard.
IMHO any of the above are likely to have more influence than finish thickness. For that matter, has anyone even confirmed that the finish is actually thinner on the Road Worn? Distressed doesn't mean thinner.
I'm always open to being convinced. Just show me a double-blind test of basses that are identical except for the finish, where a statistically significant number of listeners can tell them apart.