I am always curious about how long the ball actually stays on the rubber and how much it traverses the rubber on my shots.
From a purely sports point of view, back swing and follow through 100% matter in determining the quality/placement of your shots. It's the same in all sports from soccer, to basketball, to tennis to our lovely sport of table tennis.
Also, there's no denying that wrist action / or wrapping over the ball is having some of effect on the ball. If it wasn't, why would ex world #1 Timo boll be speaking about it? Why would high level players on this forum make claim to its effect?
In terms of measuring things.....you can easily say that the further back you swing...the faster you could swing when you go forward. There is no denying that (although a very far backswing is not the most optimal in this high speed game). I think it's also pretty easy to agree that "wrapping" or using a little wrist action is also adding to the total racket head speed. so when you "wrap", you have the speed of your arm movement+ the added speed from the wrist action. Even assuming a single point of contact on the rubber, the faster the paddle swings, the more spin will be imparted on the ball if you assume a 45 degree single point of contact on the ball. For me, those simple facts alone justify the "wrapping" technique, even if you disregard one of the greatest players on earth talking of the benefits.
The big variable here....what is the impact of the rubber / and or the blade on the ball. Logically, you cannot deny that different rubbers have different effects on the balls. I use tenergy 05....i get some pretty spinny balls...and they catapult off the blade and rubber with a high arc. I used my buddy's W698 the other day with DHS hurricane 3....these balls (with essentially the same forehand stroke) were faster, lower, and spinnier than my viscaria/tenergy set up. Is it because the blade has more flex? because the rubbber grips and RIPS the ball faster? Either way, you cannot deny that different rubbers / blades have different effects on the balls.
I am apt to believe that there is NOT a single point of contact between the ball and rubber, but rather the ball does traverse, depending on the blade and rubber, some small distance across the rubber, and due to this, a wrapping motion can create extra spin. Can i measure that distance? no. i don't have the tools. i think you would need an extremely slow motion camera to do this sort of experiment and measure the results. However, for us normal folk, we can take the word of some of the world's greats.