When i started to play wushu, i loved it also because it was mostly a "Relax" mod (and, as an ex judo player, i've found it different and extremely nice). I passed for a period of "Relax All" (and that's why i ever appreciated that clan;)), and that gave me an huge understanding of relaxed body.
But then i changed style and moved more to the "realism" (the max possible with 50 tf at least), and found that relaxing most of the body was extremely bad for it (really far from the reality). And that's how i slightly moved even more to the "hold side".

Now i've just noticed that, except for Beg and Xhiba (and imo they too use hold, or extend/contract, more than relax), also others in Tier 1 are mostly "Hold" users.
Do you think it's just a case, or that Hold is generally better for this mod?

Well, depends. When I fight seriously, I start from relax all. But after a while for the spins and everything to work properly, there can't be too many relaxed joints (on the body, at least) or else you'll end up losing momentum. It is also a stupid idea to relax all when delivering blows. F=m*a, if there's little to no mass (i.e. your body weight) behind the move, you can go super fast but you'll end up delivering less than you could have with a more rigid stance.
Of course, everything depends on the situation.

Everyone tries to find his own wushu style. In my opinion, "Hold" style is like a "relax" style with its own features. If you like "relax" style, you'll flow like a water, but if you like "hold" style, you'll move realistically.

It's situational for me.Sometimes,I can't reach to positions for a comeback with hold-all so I use some relax all,which gives u a bit more freedom,if you can say.

i suppose a perfect wushu player should use combined style of joints to use all the possible ways of the momentum kicks, etc.
I can not imagine ANY of those nice wushu players that only use either hold or relax. So, this classification is a bit weird.
Sure you can call those dudes from tier 1 hold users, because they spend most oftheir time doing different accurate kicks and punches, that require strengh, that could only be provided by force. But it will be nonsense, because sometimes they use relax freaky often: while performing comebacks or in case of preventing themselves from the conseqences from an unavoidable kick from the opponent.
I can give you tons of situations to prove my point of view.
If the person only uses force, he/she shoul not be in the Tier #1 at all, because this kind of people do not use 100% of their abilities, so, they are, at least Tier #2. That is it.
It always depends on the situation, what to use.

I didn't explained well..when i say "hold" or "relax", i mean someone that use mostly that condition. Then is clear that we try to use everything when is the right moment. Only Odlov in his last style was a true "hold" player;p
In truth everyone use a combined style, but some use much more hold than relax (for example now when i have to start to move the body, most of the time i prefer to start from "hold all", while in the past i used to start to move my body mostly from "relax all").
I also find much faster to set a comeback starting from hold all, respect to start from "relax all".
Then of course there are some cb that are impossible to complete without relaxing most of the body, but i'm more talking in a general way

Well, in my case it's around 60% to 40% for hold.
First two turns impro comes with relax, same goes for comebacks when falling from the height/going away from opponent with high speed but I don't bother myself with relaxing when it comes to punches/kicks, comebacks from steady positions and smoothing the impact of opponent's hits. Oh, and relax totally comes in handy when you need to evade :>

Hold all, relax all..
Why not just hold some joints, relax some joints, Extend some joints so you could deliver near impossible stylish hits? No need to try so hard to make it look realistic since the toris aren't made from flesh and bone. Don't hold back when you are thinking the probabilities of how awesome your move would turn out to be if you took the higher risk to make a successful hit.
And when that moves hits you will know what is it in this game you enjoy.

both relax and hold are usefull, depends on situation.
As for me when im falling to make cb i use relax,
when i need to fix small amount of joints i use hold

relax all. because i'm lazy as fuck