Oh, man - we tried the experiment and now I am picking with a banana!
Seriously, I do stand my initial proposition that there is string response during the pluck, and that different materials produce different sounds. Think of the fat felt picks of electric basses or the rubber picks that some uke players use. Not to mention bowing, which is essentially a series of small plucks as the string overcomes the friction of the rosined horse hair and lets go.
Nice view of violin string being bowed:
Also, nice short intro to waveforms of plucked strings here:
I also completely agree about subjective reality. Similar honey test was done on wine snobs some years back, and several could not tell a white from a red blindfolded. Hey, all we have is subjective reality.
Is this still a bachi discussion? Seems like we are into philosophy now.