After Run Oil: Fact or Fiction

Coming up in this hobby, I realized there are a plethora of wive's tales/urban legends/straight bullshit flowing from the keyboard of Internet gurus. I also learned quickly how to decipher the real ones from the fake ones. 

Among the real ones, there was a debate concerning After Run Oil (ARO). Many said it was a must have, and many said it was a con. 

I'm going to give you the short version of what I know based on all the engines I've owned:

***AFTER RUN OIL MAKES A DIFFERENCE***
No if's and'd or bnt's about it, in my mind. Here is what I know to be fact:

1. First, you have to understand that an engine does not die. It slowly fades away. Think of a bell curve on it's lifetime performance. 
2. On all the engines where I used ARO after each run, I noticed a decrease in performance much later than those I did not use ARO.
3. After about my 15th engine, I decided to get lazy and not use ARO. Once I realized I was not using it, I thought "Hmmm...let me see if it does make a difference". I did this for my next three engines. One Werks, two Novarossi's and on HPI F4.6. 
4. Each of these engines showed a decline in performance 2+ gallons EARLIER than the engines where I used ARO.
5. This does not indicate that the engine was permanently damaged, just that parts wore faster and it needed more servicing (bearings replaced, "gunk" removed, etc)
6. I then switched back using ARO, and two of the engines were of the same as the four noted above (so now I'm comparing Apples to Apples).
7. To-date the engines purchased after I started using ARO again...well, they are still rocking gallons MORE than their counterparts without ARO.

I am unaware of such testing/analysis as mine. I imagine there is some scientific hypothesis people have, but I go by what is tangible. i.e. What a common hobbyists will realize. i.e. Real shit. 

So ARO makes a tangible difference, but why? I have no idea, and really don't care. All I can tell you is that I use it and no 'blowhard' Internet counter-argument would ever change my mind as I go by what I know.