As far as the chips are concerned, the pool being PPS+ or PPLNS has NO DIFFERENCE.
You may be referring to the downtime when switching, as typically done by Nicehash. This should not be an issue with the #xnsub option enabled.
To OP: The reasoning behind it is that the Antminers get hotter when they disconnect from a pool. But needing to use PPS+ is false. ViaBTC in both modes use the miners identically (and PPS+ is the default anyway). You can do the same test on any pool, such as ckpool and its perfectly valid, if not better simply because the pool operator might help you diagnose things. Kanopool is out of the question, because the operator will ban you.
Yes there is another advantage to testing in ckpool: You don't need an user account to use it, you can just use your bitcoin address.
I have the #xnsub option enabled with Nicehash. My miner fans are all running well plus I have additional large fans pulling 3200CFM across 12 miners (4 are L3+/++ units). Also, miner's firmware is set to target a temp of 76 and if the logs from Awesome Miners are correct (and I believe they are) the temps never went above this.
I will try ckpool too when I can. I'll probably turn on one breaker - which runs 2 miners - I can point one at viaBTC and one at ckpool - maybe, depends on my testing, I only have one SD card to try booting from at the moment, but I guess I could try them before booting up from the SD card.
Thanks!