As an engineer who worked in the cycling industry for a good number of years, I find the prevalence of the chain drive to be really odd. The distance between the pins in a chain do lengthen over time, there is an additional friction force of the chain matching up with and sliding over the sprockets and the amount of force produced from a bass pedal doesn’t require any of the advantages that a chain and sprocket do for a bicycle. So it’s quite a strange design to me.
What’s annoying is that it seems there’s almost no way to try out the different strap and direct drive options so to jump ship from the chain takes a huge leap of faith. I’ve played DW5000 pedals with chain drive for a couple decades but would say that my Ludwig Speed King that came with my first drum set ever 25 years ago was the best playing.
The differences I’m sure are pretty minimal so I’ve never justified spending the $ to switch things up, but from an engineering perspective the chain is a strange choice as the industry standard. Straps will offer less friction, less change in performance over time, will withstand forces just fine, be quieter, require less maintenance and should be cheaper as well... I don’t get the dominance of the chain.