An interesting question. I've not seen any definitive 'side by side' studies on survival alone, anyone else? Looking at a longer list of criteria, spring build up and eventual honey yield are also potential measures of how successful variations are.
Without wanting to start a poly vs wood debate, there are numbers that suggest larger commercial operators get higher yields out of poly hives, such as the ITLD posting
on this thread. The numbers are going to be specific to the circumstances at the time on migratory heather crops but there's a fair amount of evidence that colonies in open mesh floor polys have as good or higher honey yields than those in solid wooden floors. For net survival rates, the efficiency of stores use is going to be one factor, but disease rates in different hive set ups and other factors we can only guess at could be important too.
Whatever numbers you choose to measure, how close is a wooden hive with open OMF and top insulation to a full poly outfit? Or is it basically still acting like a wooden box? Any study with a large sample size would have to use 'off the shelf' hives to be reproducible. With so many detail variants of what and how insulation is applied it's unlikely that there will ever be clear answers for after sale modifications. If we're looking for results that could be relevant to the typical beekeeper on this forum* perhaps a poll is in order. The questions might need some thought and the timing should probably be after winter losses are assessed.
* Typical might not be the best term given that we're covering everything from one of the largest operators in the UK to the beginner with a single nuc.
