I'm not dissing you theory, but opening the window to other aspects. If I was riding a fixie with perfectly aligned chain I’d buy the theory in that thinly veiled science prac report, but it’s not the whole picture for geared setups. The reason I'd buy the theory is that an engineer by the name of Binder (what a coincidental name for a bloke who did the engineering mechanics on chain systems!) worked out in the 1950’s that the Coulomb friction between the chain and sprocket in an aligned system has almost no bearing of loss of efficiency (lubed or not). Shitmano didn't need John Hopkins Uni to do a bench test to tell them that. So that part is indeed true to the engineering and mechanical principals. BUT, others furthered binders work and did the sums and worked out that misalignment of a chain by as little as 2 degrees can cause rubbing of the inner/outer links, creating 60-70% increased load on the chain. Up this to 6% and chains have a tendency to overcome any tension and jump off sprockets (or bind and break).
Without doing any sums I recon it would not be difficult to get 1-2% misalignment on geared mtb's. That’s where wax and other friction modifiers come into play, other than keeping dirt out.
Would suspending a dry lube like boron nitride in the mix have a dramatic or even noticeable effect? Maybe, maybe not. Many other things come into play like viscosity, adhesion, film thickness... oh wait -that sounds like molecular engineering that oil companies spend $'s researching. Have the bike lube pushers invested in research to substantiate their mixes, who knows.
What I do know is that I use either a can of Inox for wet weather or home brew wax chain lube for the dry. Commercial bike lubes are way overpriced – just take the measly 100ml you get for $15-$25, = $150-$250 a litre, or $50,000 for a 200 litre drum. That’s insane. Make your own.
