Properly sized shorting rings are very good at reducing distortion from midbass frequencies up. However, bear in mind that the shorting ring must be carefully sized and positioned to exactly counteract flux modulation by inducing the opposite and exactly equal force. This is not trivial, and so some shorting rings are better than others.

That said, I have only casual experience with EV drivers. I have designed very few that used them. The ones I have worked with sounded good, but I still think I liked the JBL's better. Hard to say if that was "prejudicial" from long time preference or not.