My guess is that scenario #1 leads to more flavorful/sour dough, but less oven spring. But what do I know? Thanks as always for the help! It's been so fun trying to dial in these sourdough pies!
Low inoculation results in more acetic dough. Try feeding your starter 1:1:1 and another 1:10:10, you'll notice the big difference in texture and smell.
From Full Proof baking:
"During their growth phases, bacteria and yeast reproduce at an exponential rate. Bacteria
grow and reproduce faster than yeast cells. If your bacteria cells are reproducing faster
than yeast cells, how is it that by the time the starter is peaking, the relative balance of
bacteria and yeast tends to turn out the same each time in a consistently maintained
starter? This is because bacteria, after a feed, experience a “lag phase”, a period of time
where they aren’t reproducing, before they kick on and begin to activate again. The yeasts,
on the other hand, kick on right away! The expert microbiologist Debra Wink has used the
allegory of the Tortoise and the Hare - where the bacteria start off slow, but eventually can
catch up and outpace the yeasts!
Now when you feed your starter, you are diluting both populations out. The bacteria are
less hardy than the yeasts, and they take longer to recover. This means the bacterial lag
phase is longer than the yeast’s lag phase, and so the yeasts start going to work right away
producing CO2 gas. Eventually, the bacteria kick on and, after a few doubling periods, the
acid load rises. The combined increased acid burden coupled with the microbes running
out of resources cause the microbes go into a “stationary phase” and stop growing (go
dormant).
When you feed at very high ratios (1:10), you end up diluting out the microbes and acid
load even more. In this situation, it takes much longer for the yeasts to leaven to full
maximal peak, and so the “finish line” is extended further out. Given this longer period of
time, the bacteria will slowly kick on but then rapidly begin to grow and reproduce,
outpacing the yeasts. The bacteria experience more doublings/generations than they
otherwise would by the time the starter is reaching peak. All the while, they are producing
acids, so that by the time the starter has reached peak, the starter is much more
concentrated with acids and thus, sour!"
