Quote: And smaller pixels means more pixels and thus more signal,
Oh sorry, I thought you'd see it... photons are signal, not the number of receptors. When the signal gets spread around to more receptors (pixels) . You get a higher noise to signal ratio.. so smaller pixels doesn't mean more signal...usually it means more noise. That being said there are so many other factors involved it's hard to say anything will be true, just that all other things being equal, they will be true. Immediately after saying that you have to put in the caveat, all things are never equal.
But you tell me then, have you seen a smaller sensor out perform a larger one.. sensors of the same era?