I don't think enough people follow HST for us to see "monsters" emerging from the program. Also, a lot of people probably have a lackluster diet, whereas with DC (especially those who pay for his guidance) people pound a ton of food, because they want to do it right and get their money's worth.
I think you can really get to that size no matter what you do. It's not so much the training that's important, but getting proper rest and nutrition. I still believe HST to be the optimal way though, but I'm trying not to be biased. Kinda hard.
I mean, there are studies for everything, you were right in saying that before. I can prove it's the optimal way to mass gains in the lab, then you can show me something that probably says otherwise, but realize that the DC program uses a lot of similar HST principles. First off, when cycling exercises on the DC routine, you take awhile to plateau, so progressive resistance occurs for some time.
Strategic deconditioning comes about during that type of cruising period, or perhaps even a week-long layoff, which most people take (they need it mentally
anyway). Then of course the frequency principle, training bodyparts 1.5x a week (two some weeks, one others).
The last principle is just stupid, in my opinion, because it's common knowledge, and that is having the muscle sustain itself under a load its unaccustomed to, which results in adaptation and thus, growth.
So, I think Casual was right in saying a lot of programs mirror HST principles, and they adopt them in their own way. If you had someone training under HST for a year straight, diet dead-on and getting enough rest to recover from the onslaught of three fullbody training bouts a week, I think you'd have a person with a
lot of stretch marks.
