I have had a Peterson that made everything I smoked in it taste awful. It had a green woody taste. I also have a Nording Valhalla that my wife complains about the smell every time I smoke it, no matter what I smoke in it, but I don't smell it while smoking it. I also notice that some of my pipes enhance the flavor of the tobacco for certain blends, and other pipes I think enhances the rest.
In a one word answer, no/yes, I don't think it's the "quality" of the pipes from an engineering perspective, but the "quality" of the briar used.
We get so used to the aroma of warm briar as pipe smokers that we don't notice it any more. But, yes it does add a significant flavor, IMO. Just as the flavor of a cigar touching the lips adds that special cigar flavor to the experience that we miss when using our pipes to smoke cigar leaf, plus the aroma of the briar is added in.
It's always interesting, in the past when I have posted about this, so many guys never noticed the aromas of the briar before. To me, it is what adds that "pipey" smell to the smoke. You don't get that from any other method of using tobacco. But, YMMV.
Does that help?