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I'd have thought it's pretty straightforwardly a case that effectiveness is capped at the percentage that comes through the material; so as long as some is, a better material will do a bit better. For sake of argument if you're getting 80% effectiveness from a perfect fit, that's 40% if 50% air comes around the sides, and better than an alternative that's 20% effective however well it fits. (All made-up round numbers.)

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I’m not sure if it is or not. It’s something I’d actually like to understand.

I would imagine that if there’s a significant gap, most air would actually bypass the mask entirely. And “significant” here is still fairly small. I’m thinking you only need a cross section as large as your nostrils for most air to flow around the mask. And as you make the mask less breathable/more resistive, more air will bypass the mask.

But I don’t know how accurate my assumptions are.

Is it possible that "worse" masks actually perform better in this case, because more air actually passes through the material instead of through gaps? Not advising to use flimsy masks of course, just wondering.

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