Yes, I am talking about the roles tab in dwarf therapist. I thought that those roles were determined not only by a dwarves preferences, but by their attributes like strength, agility, analytical ability, and so on that are known to improve said labor. For instance, good attributes might decrease the time required and/or increase the quality of the item produced. Also it's worth noting that dwarves will produce higher quality items if that item is one of their preferences. I do not know the degree to which this happens.
That is true. It's hard to test the degree because, for instance, mining improves mining skill and strength. From my non-scientific testing, the skill level overwhelming. Strength probably matters more than, say, a fondness for pickaxes, but I don't know by how much. I have absolutely no idea whether it affects quality.
My casual test was to embark with 2 miners of level 5, then dig down 2 levels of dirt, then to the edge of the map through dirt. They both finished close to the same time, despite having different ratings for strength. There was a difference, sure, but not enough that I thought it worthwhile to bother. YMMV.
I also do not know the degree which attributes affect labors, but if between two dwarves, both at skill level 0, one could potentially be faster at their labor by a factor of 2 or 3 solely due to attributes I'd say that information would be useful for the player to have at hand.
True again. Strength makes a big difference hauling rocks or furniture or such. I've seen extremely low strength dwarves slowed to a crawl moving a rock that barely slows a strong dwarf, so in that case, it was probably greater than x3. No idea how big of an effect it would have on other labors.
Veritable geyser of ignorance, aren't I?