In fact, I did comare Yamazaki whisky to Islay whisky using this (http://rsearch.ca/static/compare) web interface I made specifically for cases when people claimed that any two things were "not comparable".

The results for Yamazaki include: smooth mizunara hakushu hibiki

While the results for Islay include: peat smoke barley caol

Actually, you seem to have provided a comparison yourself: one is heavily peaky and smoky, and one is not. Seems like a pretty good comparison to me.

There is _no_ objective measure of quality when it comes to whisky so all we have to go on is personal preference. When Murray benighted the 2013 Yamazaki, that was _his_ personal preference against _all_ whiskies reviewed, peaty, smokey, or otherwise.

And you can _absolutely_ compare a peaty/smokey whisky to one that isn't. Why can't you? Peaty/smokey isn't the sharp divisor of preference that is insinuated in yours and other comments. Peat is delivered in very unique ways across distilleries and in my tastings I often have folks strongly dislike Ardbeg Corryvreckan but adore Lagavulin 16 (as an example).

You CAN compare it to a Coca Cola, but it’s appropriate to point out that they’re very different.

Agreed, for a light Highland single malt it might be easier to compare to white spirit than to an Islay.