As some of you know, I have been a staunch supporter of p2pool and have posted quite a few times regarding its advantages.  There used to be a great thread comparing p2pool to Eligius and BTCGuild.  Unfortunately, that thread has not been updated since August.  Recently, however, BAN has claimed they are the best paying pool, bar none.  Well, here's the proof that they are not.

Just for fun, I checked everything from the time BAN opened its doors (I used the announcement on BAN's website of 7/20/2014 as the start date) and compared that to my mining on p2pool for the same timeframe: 7/20/2014 until 11/26/2014.  I used http://retrocalc.net to figure out the expected earnings during this timeframe for my hash rate.  During this time, I have had S1s, SP10 and S3s mining.  I sold the S1s and the SP10 and the dates and data reflect them hashing until I unplugged them and shipped them out.  Here are the results:

Miners and dates, with hash rate and expected earnings
7/20 - 7/30, 2xS1 @ 400GH/s.  Expected: 0.1121BTC
7/20 - 11/26 1xS3 @ 440GH/s.  Expected: 1.0367BTC
7/20 - 11/26 1xS3 @ 420GH/s.  Expected: 0.9896BTC
7/20 - 8/1 1xSP10 @ 1.35TH/s.  Expected: 0.4509BTC
8/1 - 11/26 3xS3 @ 1.32TH/s.  Expected: 2.6692BTC
8/9 - 11/26 3xS3 @ 1.32TH/s.  Expected: 2.3875BTC

Expected total earnings from mining: 7.646BTC

Actual mined BTC: 8.61186032BTC

Difference: 0.96586032BTC

P2Pool has beaten expectations for the time period that BAN has been in existence by 12.6%.  In other words, p2pool has paid 112.63% of expected earnings.

Feel free to check the data.  Here are the addresses to which I've mined:
1DeVLDoGvkbbB5n3dPvbpDbwiKGjYckCy9
1H2uK38p6XEpiqPkECVNpC3CSTWxVwPGBS
1FEztNFHXvx7pCDSVy4xJ9JGxFGFSDKNXg
1BST6cuZ2ZhpsFaq3eY1xwFKzEDLfAWgqF
1DLcDRVncY7Zasd91oBw12XrQfLPohtNZP
1FWTtUBVk9XdkrfWkvS3uBN6CRkGgaMrQv

You can validate this against the blockchain, as well as see the payouts by going to http://minefast.coincadence.com/miner.php and plugging each of those addresses.

Therefore, in the BAN thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=854368.0, the rankings should put p2pool as the number 1 paying pool.  By the way, I checked out the test as linked in that thread.  Nowhere does that test give actual proof of wallet addresses that can be verified as I have.  If I use the exact dates as that test, here are the numbers:

10/20 - 10/27 8xS3 @ 440GH/s. Expected: 0.3485BTC.  Actual: 0.60947698BTC.  Difference of 0.26097698BTC.

During the tested timeframe, p2pool beat expectations by 74.86%.  You're reading that right.  During the timeframe from 10/20 - 10/27, p2pool paid 174.86% of expected earnings, which absolutely destroys any other of the tested pools.  Once again, please feel free to validate my data.  I mined to 1DeVLDoGvkbbB5n3dPvbpDbwiKGjYckCy9, and the payouts can be easily verified.

So, in conclusion, p2pool has consistently beaten expectations and has beaten BAN's payouts, not only for the period they tested, but for the entirety of BAN's existence.

EDIT: semaster has updated his comparison thread of p2pool vs Eligius vs BTCGuild.  The thread is located here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=416933.0.  According to his tests, p2pool is in the lead paying:

p2pool - BTC16.9718 VS btcguild (PPLNS) - BTC16.0933 VS Eligius BTC15.8041

Using his 6 S1s @ 1080GH/s total, expected earnings for that timeframe (2/1 - 10/30) are: 18.0886BTC.  So, none of his tested pools have met expectations.  However, p2Pool still wins here at 93.83% of expectations.