I think you’re right. Actually a lot of things fail to surprise me anymore. The results of virtually all Brulosophy exBmts for example. ;D
I guess I need to do a side by side - 833 definitely seems to leave a maltier mouthfeel than 2124 to me. Sort of like the difference between 1056 and 1450. Who knows? I can always be wrong.
I’m thinking more along the lines of just because you have BJCP beside your name doesn’t mean you can taste beer. It means you took and passed a test. Plenty of people take and pass the drivers test to get their licenses…we all know how that has worked out for humanity.
Ditto. I have several lager yeasts in the refrigerator and if I’m smart ( :o ), I’ll use a good 3 or 4 different ones on my next batch. Might have to ferment in plastic gallon milk jugs though, which could introduce some interesting variables in itself.
The difference for me is that the 34/70 yeasts will give a more bitter finish than 833. I had split a 10 gallon batch of Pilsner this year, and while the 833 turned out to be a fine beer,the 34/70 (WLP 830) just vanished. 
I think we all (including me) fall victim to confirmation bias very easily. We are told that one yeast is crisper or maltier, and we believe it and actually taste the beer that way. But until there’s a blind triangle, we may very well be fooling ourselves.
Maybe so, Denny. All the better reason to try it out on a split batch for myself.
Split batch is a great way to go with 10 gallons of lager wort. I tried S-189 against 34/70 and S-189 is “cleaner” yet than 34/70. I made a Helles and the S-189 tastes great, but really did not have the shine to the malts that 34/70 seemed to bring out. Both were quaffable in quantity, however.