I'm not sure if I understand what really is being discussed here, which is not unusual for me.
What I think is, there really is a difference between bottle aging and bulk aging, and the method I choose has a lot to do with what I am brewing and the results I want to get.
I bottle age/condition my ales giving enough time for primary fermentation to complete clean up and I bulk cold age/condition my lagers for a minimum four weeks in a Slim Jim or carboy after flushing with carbon dioxide allowing as little air space as possible. After the extended lagering time there is still plenty of yeast viable to carbonate after bottling.
A short excerpt from How to Brew by John Palmer (pg.91-92) might better portray my thoughts as follows: Quote!
Secondary Fermentator vs. Bottle Conditioning:
Conditioning can be done in either the secondary fermentor or the bottle, but the two methods do produce different results. It is up to you to determine how long to give each phase to produce your intended beer.
Yeast activity is responsible for conditioning, so it is logical that the greater yeast mass in the fermentor is more effective at conditioning than the smaller amount of suspended yeast in the bottle. This is why I recommend that you give your beer more time in the fermentor before bottling. When you add the priming sugar and bottle your beer, the yeast go through the same three stages of fermentation as the main batch, including the production of by-products. If the beer is bottled , early, e.g., one week old, then the small amount of yeast in the bottle has to do the double task of conditioning the priming by-products as well as those from the main fermentation. You could very well end up with an off-flavored batch.
Studies have shown that priming and bottle conditioning is a very unique form of fermentation due to the oxygen present in the head space of the bottle, only about 30% of which is used. The other 70% can contribute to staling reactions. Additional fermentables have been added to the beer to produce the carbonation, and this results in very different ester profiles than those that are normally produced in the main fermenter. In some styles, like Belgian-style strong ale, bottle conditioning and the resultant flavors are the hallmark of the style. These styles cannot be produced with the same flavors via kegging.
For the best results, the beer should be given time to condition before priming and bottling. And to minimize the risk of off-flavors from sitting on the trub, extended conditioning should be done in a secondary fermenter. There will still be sufficient yeast in suspension to ferment the priming sugar and carbonate the beer, even if the yeast have flocculated and the beer has cleared.
End quote!
With that said, I also agree with Maine Homebrewer about longer term aging (i.e. multi months). In that case I would probably want to either bottle condition with possible a different clean finishing yeast or krausen
Again, I may be misunderstading the question...