Looking at your original Q, maybe i should try to summarize.
the long winded explanations were to try to explain that as your surmise there is a difference in wood; however, it is so close that the cue-makers influence is greater. Basically the taper and how thin or thick (in very small increments) he makes it.
Also, the chevrons are a tattle-tale: It is not possible to have perfect chevrons spaced uniformly on both sides of a straight cue if the blank was bowed when the cue was started, or even if it bowed (from stress or stress-relief) when it was being made. Wood being wood, that still does not mean it is/was perfect, but close enough. If the chevrons obviously look "off" it may still be a great playing cue due to cue-maker talent, but it probably did not start with the best piece of material. That is why snooker players who don't really know the background details, can obsess on the grain/chevron pattern.
The taper will affect the spacing. The cuemaker finesses the taper to gain the performance he deems ideal; or ideal for a known customer.
IMO, with a metal ferule, the difference between wide grain and close grain on a snooker cue as far as LD is going to be practically non existent. Either one can be made slightly more LD than the other by a few grams change in the end mass, or by a slightly different taper. Snooker cues are so small dia. that there is not a lot to work with there, either.
If you go to the extremes possible within "good" blanks of ash, the tight grain vs wide grain may well feel different to some players (whether a cue robot would find them different or not). Feel is a big part of how a player gets confidence and comfort in using his stick, so it may be a subjective factor. If you can actually find a couple, or better yet, sets of maybe 3 of each, and try them, you may prefer a difference. This is because the shock wave propagation ("feedback") will probably be different. However, most of the feed back occurs long after the tip has influenced the ball; from a technical standpoint.
In an ideal world, someone would paint a bunch of cues black (with massless, perfectly non-influencing paint, of course). You would play with them until a clear favorite emerged, and then the paint would be rubbed off and you would see what the grain looked like. :thumbup:
smt