First, between the plain and vacuum packed dough there was only a slight difference. They looked the same and tasted the same. The only difference that I saw was that the vacuum packed cookie seemed to fall apart in your mouth a little more readily.
As for the rested dough, there were some marked differences. Firstly I only baked those for 12 minutes instead of 13. I think that I should have held out for 13 since the time difference changed the texture of the cookie pretty dramatically. They were more moist, more buttery. They tended to leave an oily spot on the napkin where you set them down. The odd thing is that they were more golden brown than the regular dough, even though they were baked for less time.
Also the cookies baked 36 hours before were of course drier than the fresh cookies. This had a definite effect on the testers.
My conclusions thus far:
1) The sea salt on top of the cookie is a stroke of genius
2) Rested dough browns quicker
More research is called for. I'd like to mix a batch and rest it, then 36 hours later mix another batch and bake them together. If I can stick to the recipe the doughs should be pretty similar.
It's really amazing that you can bake such different cookies from a single dough. Most tasters saw differences between even the basic and vacuum packed cookies and were a little skeptical of my assurances that they were from the same batter.