>he is testing one aspect in isolation of others. This is a good thing, and is generally the way in which scientific tests advance knowledge.

Yes, maintaining constants and only altering one variable. But this test has an 2nd variable, that is altered into a special state for all of the experimentation, and then we make the leap into assuming that these results are anything other than pretty to look at when the 2nd variable is in any other position.

This is a good test for seeing which server runs best with a load testing client competing for resources on the box and using the loopback network. Thats it.

The problem is you can't test without a network stack at all, you can only test with a different network stack. Whats to say the particulars of the loopback network aren't causing more issues to be introduced to the validity of the results than the full TCP/IP stack you're trying to avoid influencing the results? Nothing, that's what.