Jay, please consider the nature of your response.

We can consider that the opposite of arrogance is humility. A humble response would be to say that perhaps there is room for improvement, and to look for the truth in what Dave is saying, even if the majority of his argument were invalid. You call yourself a teacher, a true teacher must realize that he never stops being a student, and must never consider himself to be above his pupils or in any way superior.

In the eyes of many, your response will only strengthen Dave's point.

In Dave's defense, his point is correct. When we apply a taper on the end of a peg, even if it is slight, we are assuming that peg will exert a wedging force for the length of that taper (even if it were only a bevel) In the case of non drawing pegs, that wedging force only serves to ease in initial insertion of the peg. It may not be absolutely necessary, but it still does perform that action.

In the case of a draw-born hole, you have a much longer taper on the end of the peg (around here, pegs tended to be sharpened nearly to a point with a taper 3 to 4 inches long). Draw born holes are not lined up, essentially meaning you have a smaller hole in which to insert the end of your peg. As you drive it in, the inclined surface of the peg forces the tow unaligned holes into alignment with each other. The longer the taper, the easier this action is. This is by definition a wedging force.

There is an analogue in Central Europe that can be used to illustrate this point further. On the sills of large timber frames, double or triple through tenons are used, secured in place with wooden wedges. Both German and English refer to these as wedges, although in service a flat portion is in the joint. The wedging action occurs only during assembly. They have a taper on the end, after which they flatten out. They wedged ends serve to draw the sill beams together, and the flat surface prevents them from working their way out of the joint over time. I've never heard these referred to as anything other than wedges, and the joint is called a wedged joint. It is exactly the same action being performed by a draw peg. The wedging force acts during assembly, after which it is no longer necessary. It is no matter whether the wedging is performed by the in service peg (which around here would often be trimmed off, removing the pointed end) or by a steel peg or other assembly tool which is then removed and replaced. The force at work is still a wedging force.