Key reason why I gap my plugs at 25 mils, 0.025 inches. In the theory of electrostatics, electrons gather at a sharp point, so the edges of the electrodes have to be sharp. Did get more life out of my Champs by cleaning them with my ground walnut spark plug cleaner and using a point file to keep both the center and ground electrode square.
Somebody was really smoking crack when GM came out with the HEI and using a 65 mil gap, took some careful bending to reduce that to 30 miles. So was Kia for my daughters Soul, what a name, gaped at 45 mils, she was getting misfires, change her car into a rocket by gaping to 30 mils.
Spark current is only in the order of 5 milliamperes, so resistance isn't even a factor. But having a sharp edge is. Platinum still holds longer, but instead of 10K miles, more like 40K miles. Whoever came out with a 100K miles was really smoking crack.
If you want to talk about resistance, resistant plugs have to be used in these electronic vehicles to reduce EMI, a carbon resistor is in series with the top terminal and center electrode that can be eaten away. Can be checked with an ohmmeter, should read about 8,000 ohms, can find some with a much higher resistance, this is why they invented trashcans.
Then there is always carbon buildup on the center electrode insulator, clean my plugs every 15K miles with my blaster, check the resistance and the gap, with my plugs, hold pretty well, but figure a life of only about 40-50K miles. Cheap insurance to prevent your cat from plugging up.
Issues were made about thermal resistance using a very thin coat of anti-seize, severely dislike those need point electrodes, in my professional experience, somebody else is smoking crack.
When I hit my start key, engine is running in an instant, when I hit the gas, Cruze takes off like a jack rabbit, ha a limping jack rabbit, but nevertheless, a jack rabbit.
When I first drove my new Cruze home, from the factor with 2 miles on it, engine would hesitate or even die when taking off in first gear. After replacing those needle point NGK's can ease out the clutch in either first or second gear without stepping on the gas for a very smooth take off.
This is the difference good clean plugs with good heat conductivity can make. Just filled my tank yesterday with mostly city driving, snow on the ground and winter gas. Still averaged 28 mpg.
Also toss in a can of Seafoam every 5K miles to clean up the rest of the engines carbon, even using only so-called top tier 91 octane ethanol free gas.
Very particular on how my engines run. Changing the plugs on the Cruze is fun for a change and only four plugs to deal with. But have to make darn sure all four of those coil springs are sticking out, hold the coil pack at an angle to assure contact is with all four plugs, move it backwards than push it down and have that torx screw handy.
Daughters Soul was even easier, using a coil per plug, cheaper too in case one coil would go bad.
Another advantage of a small gap, good conductivity, is with a misfire, that gated bipolar transistor will take a beating, is protected by a 50 volt zener diode, but the bean counters would never let us make those large enough. Putting all this stuff in the ECU was also nice for the bean counters, saves on wires, but also not good for the consumer.