As the title states, just some dumb questions. Of course I know about weight savings that are a big benefit of wheel upgrades, and aero benefits for different designs, but was curious on getting perspectives on other benefits. I have a specialized allez with the basic axis wheels (well the front is an axis, the rear wheel is a powertap pro hub with g3 internals and velocity a23 rim).

When I'm riding by myself, it really doesn't matter what I have, since I don't necessarily care about speed, but I've recently been out with people and there were times where I was increasing my watts (I'm about 4.2w/kg ~300w ftp) and I was still losing contact with the wheel in front of me. I think there's an obvious component of needing to ride with groups more often, but I was thinking about the notion of responsiveness that people cite when talking about wheel upgrades, and that lighter wheels would be a bit less sluggish and close down those gaps with just a little less effort. So I was curious if there are more than just marginal improvements that can come with wheel upgrades in a group scenario. Like I said, the likely answer is to ride with people more and focus on reducing the gaps and reading the group dynamic, but my curiosity is getting the best of me!