Check out this thread, and let me know what you think. I was under the impression that there were significant benefits of having hard IC pipes. Perhaps not direct horsepower increases, but less pressure drop across the system. Or have I been decieved?

The gains in power will be from the larger size and mandrel bends usually found in aftermarket pieces. Switching from rubber to hard will give better throttle response and boost response as the pipes don't flex upon boosting.

I replaced my upper with a Buscher set up and fabricated a lower pipe from a piece of straight exhaust pipe and some cut up radiator hose which got rid of the s-curve in the lower pipe. Boost responce definitely increased, boost comes in stronger and faster.

A lot of people judge a cars performance when looking at paper by a car's max HP and torque figures, more advanced people look at what RPM you reach these levels.
you also have to take into concideration:
-how fast your engine revs
-how smooth the horsepower/torque curve is
-how long max HP/torque levels are sustained
.... improving any of these other factors is also a gain in performance thus even if the Dyno max numbers are identical, what other factors change with the product in question installed