Jeffrey Morgenthaler posted a video advocating using a cheese slicer instead of a Y-peeler to cut citrus twists.
His selling point was safety, but in addition to perhaps being safer (I haven’t ever had any peeling accidents with citrus, knock wood), it seemed to me that the cheese slicer also produced rather thicker twists.
On Twitter when a follower wondered about too much bitter pith being included, Morgenthaler replied “This ‘bitter pith’ business is nonsense, believe me. Get yourself a nice, study, beautiful twist! It’s not going to adversely affect your drinks at all.”
I’ve long understood the white pith as something to avoid. Indeed I’ve seen Ryan Chetiyawardana carefully trim the white off peels before twisting them.
I also wonder whether a thicker peel will tend to “fold” rather than “bend” during the twist.
Of course I can do some experimentation on my own, but I’d be curious to hear from this board: how thick is your optimal twist? is avoiding the pith something you do, and if so how?
Pith gets a bad rap. Sure, all those martini-worthy oils in the outer later are wonderful for adding brightness. But pith has its own value. If you blend it in to something, it acts as a thickener. And the bitterness can be useful in some drinks. So my two cents is to use it, but do it thoughtfully and intentionally. I use pithless twists for martinis and thicc (sic) pithy peels with sweeter, high corn mashbill Bourbons.
How quickly do you find pith bitterness extracts into a cocktail?
Depends on the cocktail and the fruit. And whether you put the peel into the drink pith side up or down. I’ve not done any official comparisons, and my drinks aren’t around long enough for me to tell 
But Morgenthaler’s advice about pith is not weird at all. Citrons (from which it’s thought all our current varieties such as lemons limes, oranges, derive) are largely mesocarp (pith) and people all over the world do interesting things with that layer: candy it, blend it, chew on it as a health remedy etc. Just be careful about digging far into citrus history and use – it is an amazing but deep rabbit hole. I started off interested in the history of Cuba and was found years later with citrus shrubs taking over my property. That’s not an answer to your question Martin. For that I think you need to make some drinks 
I ask simply because I have, of course, made a fair number of drinks and never noticed that pith made any difference whatsoever, other than the visual appearance of the twist. But perhaps a little A:B test is in order? I’ve added that to my to-do list.