What surprised me is that four of my top five choices were variations of The Giant.
I have The Giant and I like it somewhat, but it has a plunky sound so I don't use it much.
Now I think I'm going to try your chosen presets, especially the Vibrant preset.

My results (before reading the revealation and other people's comments):

Best five: DFK NB (DFK being the best, in no particular order, followed by NB in no particular order). But the distinction is difficult to make.
I also liked: CL
Worst: Q (along with AORHM... to many to choose from).

I did the test twice with about a week apart to "forget the results" and while the result was sligtly different, I was basically consistent with my lineup.

Side note: I downloaded and tried PianoOne (as suggested somewhere in the thread) and I was SUPER unimpressed. I believe the next discussion about playability could be resolved by simply by pointing out this software. It sounds good "one paper", yes. I like that it's free, of course.

Now I'm going to read the "correct answers", looking forward to it:-)

I have a GIANT in my top favorite list, and in my list of the worst as well.

I will listen again to the samples, this time having in mind what others preferred. Maybe I will get my ear accustomed a little bit better towards the kind of mainstream taste. Could be interesting to know for the case that I once would play for audience...

Since you we're ready to reveal the names of the candidates anyway in the end, I don't know what the purpose or value of this test is supposed to be, other than some fun hours comparing the sequenced samples for the interested ones. The sounds we're tweaked, layered with other products and processed. Hard to give an unbiased judgement about them, apart for the really poor and very best ones. Exactly what I was afraid of earlier on.

When you are entering product names into the equation, why not do a fair and more scientific test with a broad range of different types of piano passages and playing styles and all instruments with their best grand preset without alterations (usually the fist grand preset) ?! Of course recorded in the same way at the same level. With acoustic effects (reverb!) turned off to be most neutral. That would be more useful for people trying to form an opinion on the different AP simulations available. You already created a workflow and platform to set up something like this - so perhaps it could be a next , IMHO , more useful implementation of your initiative.

I incorrectly identified a sound source file and have edited the "revealed" posts.

As for the point of this survey, it was intended to be fun.

BTW, after editing the two "revealed" posts I noticed that HalionSonic was not the only pairing of the same software. I thought of Imperfect Samples as two different pianos but there is a paring of The Giant with different presets also. Oh well...

Ahh, that makes more sense. Galaxy Vintage D for the win again.

I was very, very surprised when I saw that garageband + pianoteq was the general favorite.

Well, imagine my shock at seeing a Garageband/Pianoteq blend at the top of the list. My ears could not believe what my eyes were reading. ... until you corrected it. Now it makes sense. Vintage D and some of the Giant presets topped my list. (I own both.)

The Vintage is no surprise as a list topper. The Giant was a surprise, though. I'll have to try some of those alternate Giant presets one of these days.