if, as this thread and cam suggest, "those who purchased wide rims think much of wide rims," why aren't the big players giving the people what they want; what incentive do they have to keep their rims narrow, or drag their heels on going wide(r)?
I think the jury is still out on wide rims because of an existing historical bias towards weight and placing actual ride quality at the low end of priorities. Just read a german magazine where wheelsets are rated purely on data points rather than actual user experience. The tide is slowly changing though.
Also, prudent manufacturers are waiting for the small guys to do all the experimenting and see where the pendulum swings back to determine what the correct width to make rims at. Typical really with alot of new ideas.
plenty of pro's on the ews are running flow ex's, and several companies (pacenti, wtb, dt swiss) have been able to develop alloy rims with pretty much the same weight to width ratio
I do know that our Enduro team prefers to run Arch EX rims. Strange, but the strength to weight ratio is what they prefer for a race wheelset. They have the option to go wider but since there's alot of slowing down and speeding up going on in Enduro, the lightest possible wheel one can get away with is preferable.
From my own experiences, wide rims are are in. For regular tires up to 2.5, a 30mm inner width hookless is the sweet spot. Alloy rims wider than that will get pretty heavy or weak if weight or strength is compromised. Also, tire profiles stay in the sweet spot at 30mm.