Setting aside flakes and crumble cakes because there are other factors involved there, does the cut of a tobacco effect the taste and if it does, how?

Not sure about taste directly...but I would imagine that it would affect burn rate/heat, and possibly taste as an extension of those factors.

One of the aspects that I like about Walnut so well is the cut. It is the perfect cut for smokability and burn rate which greatly enhances the outstanding high grade flavor of Walnut. I like PA when I want a fast smoke. The fine crimp cut burns very fast but it still has a nice flavor of it's own.

I usually take a scissors to blends that don't load well.

I had a great bowl of Abington that got me thinking about this last night. It's normally sort of a chunky, natural cut and this particular tin has some small flakes formed in it. The flavor is so substantial I wondered what it would taste like as a fine shag cut.

Certain twists definitely change if you rub them out - anything with a center different from the outside, for example, will change quite a bit if you rub it out, becaue you wind up making a more even mixture, rather than finding a hit of one thing then a hit of another as you burn.

I have never really found that rubbing out or folding flakes has made a huge dif in flavor, but you certainly hear people speak differently of Mac Baren Mixture and Mac Baren Mixture Flake, and Erinmore Mix and Erinmore Flake....

In my opinion it does. When I use my hand held food chopper on certain flakes it seems to enhance the taste of the blend. I suppose, as Bill alluded to, because of the burn rate of the blend.