Very good remark indeed.
And then, once you really have experience, you can better describe what you feel in your palais (or in your eyes)... just as I'd like to have some illustrations of the praised qualities of a given lens.
As we say, "ce qui se conçoit bien s'énonce clairement" (Boileau) - what you clearly think of, you can clearly describe.
I may not fit that well in your statistics... I generally can't tell lenses, but it may only be that I've been more educated to wine than to lenses.
Lenses, as wine, exhibit a certain personality...it's been my experience over the years that German lenses tend to show better sharpness and contrast but don't do well being pointed at a light source because of flare due to the design of the lens.
In my experience, Japanese lenses tend to mitigate flare and a variety of other lens defects at the expense of the sharpness and contrast of the lens.
Even within the range of Germain lenses there are slight variations...I've always tended towards Zeiss lenses...basically because of using Blads for many years (and avoiding aiming at light sources).
For view camera lenses, I tended towards Rodenstock for certain focal lengths but Schneider for others...this compares with preferring certain wine varietals vs others (or certain vintage years vs others).
The differences between lenses (like wine) can be subtle...some bottles (and lenses) can be better than others...
The bottom line is can a certain lens (or bottle of wine) enhance your life (or images)? The answer is potentially yes...if, the lens (or wine) might make a difference...
Personally, I'm not sure which is more fun, testing wine or lenses...