glide: skating vs. traditional???

This question is more complicated than it sounds -- though I can see you've
tried to keep it simple and clear.

There's lots of kinds of glide:
(a) gliding down a hill too steep to push
(b) gliding down a gentle hill, where pushing can make me go faster
Gliding on the flat or gentle uphill:
(c) with no pushing at all
(d) while also pushing with your leg, but not your pole
(e) while also pushing with your pole, but not your leg
(f) while pushing with both your pole and leg

To start on your questions:
2) Which style glides better or more (quantitative).

Classic diagonal striding delivers _none_ of (d) and (f). Done with the
normal intermediate style, classic delivers lots of (c). With advanced
style it offers a good amount of (e).

Skating offers the possibility of all six kinds of glide. Usually much less
of (e) than advanced classic striding -- but much more of (b) and in a way
that feels more fun. Advanced skating is _all_ glide.

1) Which style glide feels better (qualitative )

Classic striding is my parents' skiing.

Skating is magical.

What's magical is that I can be gliding forward at high speed, while at the
same time pushing at a 90-degree-angle out to the side -- with that pushing
at a much slower speed which is comfortable for my leg muscles. Perhaps
because the push-motion is off in a different direction, it seems like my
"glide-pleasure-receptor" neurons are able to lock into the feeling of
forward speed, so I can experience the whole stroke cycle as fun gliding.

Some people think that kinds (d) and (f) are not "true" glide. I suspect
that's because they haven't _felt_ the magic, so they _experience_ their own
skating as an alternating sequence of push-glide-push-glide. They've got
the new gear and the new trail grooming, but their concepts and neural
patterns remain stuck in the old classic physics and the old traditional
rhythms. They're still skiing "classic": only getting their push-grip now
from the edge of the ski instead of the kick wax.

For me the key was to take a good lesson at a leading ski center with
excellent terrain and rental equipment, and feel the new magic.

Ken