Hi LookingNow,
I would be very cautious about assessing the feel or the durability of a mattress or the strength or firmness of an innerspring based on just the gauge of the coils (or any other single spec) because there are many other spring specs that can also affect the firmness/softness, performance, and the strength of the springs as well. In most cases the weakest link of a mattress is also in the comfort materials above the innerspring rather than the innerspring itself.
Different types of springs can also have very different properties and for example there are people that prefer the motion isolation or contouring of pocket coils vs offset coils. There is more about the different types of innersprings in this article and in post #10 here.
There are an almost infinite number of different types of materials and components in a mattress that can be combined together in many different ways that can result in a very wide range of different mattresses that would be suitable for some people and not for others and broad generalizations that may apply to some specific designs may not apply to other designs that “seem” to be similar.
Unless someone has a great deal of knowledge and experience with different types of mattress materials and components and their specs and with different layering combinations and mattress designs and how they combine together and can translate them into their own “real life” experience (that can be unique to each person) … I would tend to avoid using “simplified” specs that may be much more complex than they appear to try and predict how a mattress will feel or perform for any particular person and focus more on careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in the tutorial) and/or personal experience.
For most consumers … trying to choose a mattress based on combinations of specs that are incomplete and aren’t easily understood or which are only based on one or two specs (such as coil gauge) without regard to the others that can also make a significant difference may not be as relevant or meaningful as someone may believe it is and the most common outcome of trying to analyze a mattress based on specs alone is often “information overload” or “paralysis by analysis”.
The only reliable way to know for certain whether any mattress or combination of materials and components is a good “match” for someone in terms of PPP will be based on their own personal experience.
Phoenix