I used to think the same as you, John. I have several videos where I say the same sort of thing. I have since completely changed my mind, however. All this stuff about one particular brand working well on laminates and others sounding good on all-solids, well, I just can't go along with it.
But that's not what I'm saying, at all. I'm saying that there is
not a particular brand that is necessarily good on all solids, or all laminates, or what have you. Or rather, if there is, I've yet to find it. I think that if you really want to get the very best sound from any given uke you need to experiment with strings on that uke until you find the ones that work for
that uke - not laminated ukes or solid ukes, not that brand of uke, or even necessarily that model, but the specific uke. Yes, we can start with some generalities, but they are just a starting point. For example, knowing (now) that mango tends to be pretty bright, I tend to balance them with strings that let the brightness through but don't accentuate it.
The strings that I like most on my Mainland mahogany soprano and tenor "work" but are very bright on my Mainland mango soprano and tenor - and they are flat-out useless on the KoAloha! Strings that make both of my mangos sing (tenor and concert Ko'Olau gold strings, respectively, on mango tenor and mango soprano) intonate very poorly on the KoAloha and work but are a little muted and somewhat dull on the mahogany ukes.
So, I'm not saying "put Aquilas on laminates and Worth clears on solids" or anything like that. I will go so far as to say that Aquilas are at least "okay" on just about any uke I've tried them on - and Mimmo and friends deserve a lot of credit for that accomplishment. I always keep plenty of Aquilas on hand for just that reason - if a friend brings me a uke to setup I know if nothing else really works on it the Aquilas will at least make it tolerable unless the bridge is positioned wrong or something fatal like that.
Basically, though, I'm not going to pay hundreds of dollars for a uke and then settle for the first strings that are "okay" on it. Strings are pretty cheap, if it takes me four or five or ten sets to find the strings that are going to make a given uke intonate well and have a timbre that I find pleasant, that's a drop in the bucket compared to the price of the uke.
I've had ukes I was going to sell (in one case going so far as listing it in the marketplace) until I tried a different set of strings (that, in fact, I didn't really expect to work well on it which is why I hadn't tried them on it before) and fell completely in love with the uke.
I have a big plastic container full of strings and string setup tools and whatnot. Having just recieved some bari strings I am probably up to several dozen sets of strings in there now, from a variety of manufacturers. I've got probably a dozen sets of Aquilas and one thing that I do love about them is that when nothing else seems to "save" a uke the Aquilas will at least intonate reasonably well and make it sound acceptable. That's not a criticism, it's actually quite a compliment. But, just because the Aquilas "work" on almost anything doesn't make them "best" for everything!
John