Hi Brian, you're getting into some fairly complex territory here, but you are correct, different types of preferments can contribute to different results. Our three-part blog series on how to make your sourdough bread more or less sour gets into how different preferments can affect the ultimate flavor of your bread. Stiff vs. liquid can also affect dough strength over time. I once asked Martin how he would approach converting his bagel recipe to make a sourdough version and he recommended a stiff preferment because, "the stiff will add more strength and control the amount of spread due to protease activity in the loose preferment." Protease activity gradually breaks down the gluten, so slowing this down can be a good thing in some situations. As I said, it gets complicated, and I generally trust that the preferment called for in the recipe is likely to contribute to the best results. 

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