I'm sure there are plenty of guys who get a great tone out of thin strings.
I just had an interesting revalation while playing non-electric guitar: I have mainly been playing my Martin D28. Not too long ago I had a major setup (and minor repairs) done so I love playing it now; the action is much lower than it had been since I first bought it many years ago. It has 12-54 strings on it as does my Yamaha FG160 (a sort of Martin knock off).
Tunning down and playing
slide I was getting all the fret noise and knocking the fingerboard with the slide. A couple of days ago I pulled out the Yamaha (which probably needs a neck reset -- I keep it only for slide and detuning) and it sounded quite good. I didn't have any of the extraneous noises which I normally have with my Martin.
I'd been considering going to a thicker string gauge for slide but I don't think I will need to now (though that low D does sound a bit flabby). I should measure both guitars respective string heights to see how they compare.
I just foud it interesting considering this thread.