Not going to say 100% that is true as fact .
But I had a very similar though come to mind this week that those Giant foam or flat foam pads give quite an interesting experience vs on ear and over ears
If you think about it , even KOSS porta pro and their brothers are mysteriously loved by such a large and diverse group of people, and it is an on ear with just foam layer.
Less known example... the ergo precide or w/e which has a dynamic driver GLUED to a sheet of metal grill and had a GIANT flat foam on it.... and the biggest Beyerdynamic obsessed person claimed it was the "least engineered" headphone which he thought was "better than a dt880" which he thought was "the only headphone a man every needs"
so yeah .... the mysteries of the foam earpad mang