0 nicotine softens the flavor quite a bit. Once you get adjusted to lower amounts, anything over 12mg will make juice harsh but it is all about what you are accustomed to. I vaped 24mg for a year and now I have been
vaping 6mg for almost a year. When I make a 8mg batch (for those tough days) I can really feel the difference in the hit and the flavor is slightly masked by the throat hit because of my taste being conditioned at a lower amount.
Basically 0 nicotine DOES mute flavor, you have to augment with either higher percentages or sweetner/acv/ap/etc to keep that flavor robust.
4-12mg, nuetral zone where you have moderate flavor and moderate throat hit
16-24mg-36mg - flavor is still present but the finish is more throat hit and you can really feel the nicotine alot faster. When I first started vaping I used the 24 to get me off being hooked to analogs....but even then a few hot boxes on a 5v passthrough would leave you tipsy for a few seconds.
Nicotine carries flavoring very well. I would say PG is the next most influential piece of the puzzle, and VG is last as it does not carry flavor as well unless you use long soak extractions or super concentrate.