This is absolutely true. Even in local races when you start out in a big pack, you will not be seeing everything you are hitting. Will you probably be okay either way? Yep. But the bigger tires are helpful too. I’ve tried race kings and burts and more conventional “gravel” tires. In most races, my legs have been the deciding factor but I have seen situations where each is def better.
We have a race in July with a decisive sand section. Did it one year on 42’s and then the next on Burts. First year, I got dropped badly there. Second year, I dropped the entire group I was in and only two or three of them caught me afterwards to regroup. There were other differences between those races so it wasn’t only the tires, but it was nice to put the hurt on people vs getting smashed. But then at gravel nationals, I realized that the Burts were the wrong choice for that course. Other than one muddy section where some of the motos even crashed (and lots of racers), I was at a disadvantage with the bigger tires. Lots of sharp short climbs and then on a long fast paved descent where about 10-12 of us just tucked and went as fast as we could, I got dropped by the whole group based on nothing but their bikes rolling faster down a paved hill than mine when none of us were pedaling. It didn’t matter because I rode back on once we hit the flat, but it was an interesting thing to witness how much slower my big heavy tires were, even though we were going downhill.
As always, these things depend.