For the most part those guys are dead or retired. JBL, TAD, and Meyer are all still in business and discuss in their technical papers how the larger diaphragmed drivers produce less distortion. I'll go with the living.
BTW: You can add Altec to the dead list... please take all of this as quite
tongue in cheek. I doubt that we are talking about the same issue here as I doubt that there would be all that much disagreement between my group and yours. In simplest terms the large diaphragms yield lower distortion at higher SPLs since they physically move less to produce the same output. I have not yet read your link, but will.