I believe that the PG/VG ratio affects the flavor strength.
I know it does for me.
I had read, many times, that VG affects flavor. So I made a recipe at my normal 70% VG 50% PG. And I made another batch - same recipe, same flavoring amounts, same Nic amount - but modified it to 55% VG 45% PG. The recipe was one that I felt had flavor that was just barely strong enough to bother vaping. It was a good flavor, but too mild for my desires to have strong flavor.
After a month of aging, I broke out 2 identical TFV4 tanks, placed in 2 brand-new identical coils, and put them on 2 identical mods. (I have 2 of lots of things in order to do tests like this.)
I filled each tank with 1 of the batches I described above. I then vaped, easily identifying the 55/45 batch from the 70/30 because one - the 55/45 - had more flavor, a stronger flavor. Occasionally I would hand the 2 mods to my wife, close my eyes, and she would randomly give me one or the other. 6 out of 6 times I could discern each batch from the other, again based on the strength of the flavor.
In the end, I was - and still am - completely convinced that lowering the VG percentage will increase the flavor strength.
To use your chef/cooking analogy, I compare it to making 2 batches of chicken soup - one with water base and the other using chick broth instead of water. All other ingredients and process being identical, the chicken soup made with chicken brother will have a stronger flavor than the soup made with only water.
I have my own ideas about salt, and if @DarthVapor says “too much salt” then I may very well make 2 batches and conduct a scientific experiment to determine how much salt I prefer. Now, if I were making something for the masses then I would most certainly abide by his opinion about salt amount, but I am still going to make 2 batches - 1 to his taste to suit him and the masses, and another batch to suit my idea of a ideal salt amount for me, for my taste buds, because my taste buds are not his, nor is my opinion of what is right for me.
I am really trying to point out 2 things:
Everyone is different.
A scientific comparison with a single difference will prove out what the difference means.
Now, what that means about reducing the flavoring amount, I don’t know because I have not performed such a test, nor do i intend to. So my “7% - 10%” was a guess based on the test I described above. If reducing the VG increases the flavor strength, then it would make sense that reducing the VG and the flavoring amount would yield a recipe that was identical in flavor strength to the original, high-VG flavor strength.