*sigh* - this is like running into a huge gathering and asking everyone what religion they like best.
There are too many things here to unravel all of them. I'll hit the high points.
Yes the materials and treatments have improved vastly since Jobst.
You will still find old gray beards in the back of shops that will insist on building 3x.
Understand that much of the general internet's understanding of wheels and lacings is based on myth. Mine is based on study, experience, study of myth, experience of testing myth, reading some studies, etc.
Originally Posted by MYTH
Crossed lacing helps with lateral stiffness.
Nah. It does have a slight effect ~1-2% max. Not worth spending more than a second discussing or debating it. This was based on a couple of studies I have found and referenced before but could not find now to save my life.
Originally Posted by MYTH
Asymmetrical lacing in the rear can help encourage stiffness in the wheel and help transfer power.
Nope. While it is true that radial lacing doesn't allow for adequate transfer of torque at least one side of any rear has spokes set at an angle (some sort of crossed lacing or simply off center from a radial line) that allows for a lateral force and moment to be carried. The hub and rim material stiffness generally do the rest of the job. With disc brakes coming on fully you will see less and less of this messing around. The asymmetrical lacings you see are often used as a marketing bit. It isn't meaningless...some engineer really wanted to talk about marginal gains they believed to be true when looking at their finite element analysis.. but at the end of the day they don't really affect anything in the real world and usually end up leading to failures (in-equal load and unload cycle on the hub or rim leading to hub, rim, or premature spoke fatigue).
Lacing is 100% best determined by the geometry of the wheel lacing. It depends on the rim size/erd, and flange diameter and the spoke count. The correct lacing is the one that gets the spokes to leave the flange at closest to tangentially from the spoke hole circle as possible. Bein almost impossible to get at a full right angle you simply go with the closest. This is why you can see some wheels that are 3x drive side and 2x non-drive down in a 28 hole ...if the flange on the drive side is large enough.
If you go over crossed then you end up overlapping the adjacent spoke heads in your flange.
Boil this down and for road wheels it becomes "what's the drilling?" ... 24h = 2X...28h = 2X (sometimes 3X if the flange is large). 32h = 3X, 36h = 3X or 4X. Radial on 20 or down. (usually you can run 2x on 20 and radial on 24 if you want.).