I think that Dutch has it.
Try this: Take one tobacco blend and 10 pipes. The 10 pipes should all be different shapes of the bowl, size of the tobacco chamber and perhaps bent/half bent/straight re: stem. Now sit back and fill them, and light them and from the halfway point onward it's unlikely that ANY of them will taste exactly the same. What's more, I would bet that you find one or two pipes that REALLY did well...and the same with those that you wouldn't want to even finish...there would be that much difference.
Your question is the start. The real question is, "How do you find the combinations that yield those wonderfull results?"
The answer is simple...trial and error. That's the fun of it all.