Hi @samu,
I'm glad you found them useful. I just wanted to take a step back from my earlier comment:
Which basically bordered on saying OTU methods were not useful anymore.
As fate would have it, I very recently stumbled upon a few twitter feeds and blogs and posts etc. discussing the very same topic which has since made me reevaluate my stance on the issue. At least until I find some more convincing and conclusive readings. But based on a few conversations and comments from experts in the field, it seems as though there is grounds for using both methods based on the data.
And just to clarify, these discuss OTUs vs ASVs and not the denoising aspect of these pipelines. Everyone agrees that the denoising is still essential and should be used, but what you do after with the ASVs is the idea being questioned. Cluster or not? If yes, at what %, and what method. Here are some additional readings from non-published sources:
"tweetstorm" by Pat Schloss
Twitter discussion by Thomas Sharpton
Blog post by By Noah Fierer, Tess Brewer, & Mallory Choudoir
Pat Schloss' review on a Robert Edgar pre-print and his rebuttal
There's more of these out there as it turns out so I just wanted to make sure I pass these on and not do any more preaching on the topic without more conclusive evidence.
I also would love to hear some of the other community's experts' opinion on the matter.