Here we go again!
A good food source bait will outfish a lower quality bait, and in both shelf life and freezer forms. Fred Wilton worked out that a decent bait prebaited and fished well will produce more fish than a rubbish bait. Look up the history of Darenth and the Kent waters
Shelf life's now are a very different bait from 25years ago, improvements in preservation, the preservatives used or no longer used are very different. Some freezer baits are identical to the shelf life bait in the same form, only the preservation is different.
I know Crafty Catcher use a glycerine sugar syrup process to preserve the shelf life. King Prawn is the same bait in both forms.
Shelf life food baits can be more instantly attractive than the freezer version, the glycerine syrup is providing the attraction, where freezer baits can become more attractive on day 3 or 4 as the sugars, salts and enzymes come to the fore through a process known as efflorescence. (Also happens to food's and concrete)
You are mixing up the baiting situation on various lakes. If you fish over groundbait and/or particles with a rubbish bait, you may get takes as the fish clean up everything. However, if you fish with just boilies then the carp often have a preference for a decent bait. Added to that you may use a high attract bait in limited quantities to try to provoke a take.
I go back to it, but I fished a week winter session where day 1 and 2 takes came to the high attract pop-up, from day 3 the only takes came to the food source bait, despite fishing the high attract baits all the way through.
The number of times and lakes I have seen decent food source baits outcatch a rubbish bait!
Sugar, a very interesting ingredient, works differently in different forms. Normal granulated sugar, exactly the same product as icing sugar, yet not as attractive an ingredient as icing sugar, a different reaction totally.