There was some slight variation in plant types but the bulk of the plants in those two beds were two beet varieties, all planted out on the same day. Otherwise the beds have been treated the same for the last several years (same amendments, etc). Yielding a direct and controlled experiment.
For my planting style, which is to use a dribbler to pop a small plug transplant into a planting hole, it was difficult to prevent some wood chips from mixing into the hole, even though I tried to carefully scoop back the mulch. That in itself was a drawback to using wood chip mulch - it significantly slowed down the planting process making things much less efficient.
I was hoping this would work, but my conclusion from this trial is that - for whatever reason - contaminated wood chips, inadvertent mixing of chips and soil, etc - this method was a bust for me.
YMMV