Looking for proof that intensive planting is a great method

There's a ton of building evidence for planting anything intensively, with a few caveats.

I've read about the Miyawaki method for quickly establishing a healthy forest ecosystem.  Spoiler alert: bring in soil with an excellent microbiome and minerals, then intensively plant a huge number of forest plants at all levels.  https://daily.jstor.org/the-miyawaki-method-a-better-way-to-build-forests/

I've read Mike Hoag's comments about this, which are pretty sound.

To be specific, Miyawaki was looking at re-establishing forest for ecological purposes, not productivity. So where productivity is the goal, we can use Miyawaki densities to aid early establishment, but then thin and use sacrificial trees as support species and mulch. Or use two-dimensional systems. This is what I’ve recommended and done now for years in zone 4 agriforest systems and for hedgerow systems and copses. Traditional hedge density is much, much higher than what is recommended by western “science” on it, and is documented with research to work far better. There’s actually a UK study where they tried to recreate coppice lots in traditional coppice areas, but the researchers thought they could improve the “stupid’ old designs by using modern “research based best practice” spacings, which were researched for entirelly different purposes! Well, all their test coppice lots failed to produce usable copse wood! So, the answer is “it depends,” but Miyawaki’s research is incredibly valuable to Permaculturists. Geoff Lawton also uses this for establishment of zone 4 systems. The hedgerow in the picture uses traditional European densities and it established and became productive rapidly.

I'm obsessed with this pic on Pinterest, and it's my guiding image for my next set of plantings.

And this woman who plants super close together so that the plants keep each other warm.

For my own evidence collection, I'm posting videos on a YouTube playlist about the areas in my yard that show some proof.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgoGJHEZoVjf-UVbihcbHmNFXxZvKGLrB

Like this one:

Charlotte Anthony has always been about planting into existing vegetation.  If you do it right, it's amazing.  Like, pull up the vegetation in the immediate area around the new plant or seed, then mulch.  The diameter you clear/mulch depends on what will grow back and how fast and how tall, and that comes with experience.

Now it's time to do some calculated experiments.

Update 7/23/2020:  In the mentorship class I'm in, people asked how I recognized the successional stage of the brown patch as "1st-level" and the green patch as "2nd-level".  I couldn't share with them the images and lists I get from the Soil Foodweb School, but I found an old image online.  I had the wording wrong.  I should've said "early grasses" and "mid-grasses".