So, according to the responses to my poll, the vast majority would inflate their tires to the recommended cold pressures decaled somewhere on their vehicle, or approximately.
Well, I asked the mechanic who recently did my brakes, and he stated that those stickers were "a joke" - his exact words, not mine! He suggests setting tires to the max cold on the tires, or no more than 5psi below. For a tire with 51psi max cold stamped on it, that means 46psi.
And he is hardly the only mechanic or service tech who suggest going off the values stamped on that rubber.
So what changed in 10-20 years - when tires were inflated to or slightly above what the vehicle manuf. specified?