I'm not 100% certain what you mean. But I will try to clarify.
I am not talking in any way about bitterness or ibu yield. That's a separate issue. But the aroma bearing compounds of hops are, absolutely, there is no debate in any of the brewing science - affected by heat. The hydrocarbon fraction, which is the dominant fraction you obtain from dry hopping, is to a huge extent, removed by volatilization within moments of hops being put into boiling wort... The stuff that isn't driven off is to a large extent changed by heat and heat driven oxidation in hot wort. The non hydrocarbon fraction of the hop oils, is also, but to a lesser extent driven off in a boil and changed by heat.
The traditional fine/noble aroma associated with german lagers and other late hopped beers, are primarily from the oxygen bearing portion of the aroma compounds, which is able to stand the heat. Ergo the reason that you still get a subtle, but long lasting and very fine aroma, from adding noble hops even at 60mins.
Very late hopping, as in whirlpool hops/flameout hops... Still lose almost all their hydrocarbon fraction - but a bit survives, and a lot more of the oxgen bearing fraction not only survives, but is unchanged by the heat, than if the hops had been boiled for any length of time. So a less subtle and smooth aroma, but stronger.
In a hopback (and hop backs have been being used for a very long time, so it's hardly a development of modern US brewing) the hops have a very, very short contact time with hot wort, so only a very small amount of
volatiles are lost, but enough are, and there is enough contact with heat to drive off and change some of the harsher more grassy astringent compounds... Then it's all cooled down fast in a heat ex. Even less subtle and stronger again. You get a big whack of aroma out of hop back beers... Hop backs are the best of both worlds if you are looking for sheer volume of aroma... I think even more so than dry hop. If what you want is big aroma, go a hopback.
Dry hopping slowly dissolves/diffuses out all the aroma compounds in the hops... But you are talking hops that have never been exposed to high temperatures.... So the actual chemicals in there are at least a little different too. Many of the compounds aren't all that soluble in cold wort and never make it into solution. But, you do get to retain, unchanged and un volitalised, all the hydrocarbon fraction. So you keep all your myrcene and caraphylene and fanescene etc etc. And they are punchy enough so they tend to dominate. But you also keep a lot of the harsher, more unpleasant compounds too, so it can be easy to overdo dry hopping and lose the good in the bad.
Hell, there was another thread recently about warming your hops up, where a German trained brewer though that hops straight out of the freezer should be allowed to warm up to room temp before use to allow volatiles to escape, cause they are bad .... Or you could do the opposite like an american IPa brewer and work your arse off to pile in as many as you can and keep every last bit.... Cause they are so good.
What sort of organoleptic experience you are looking for, should dictate where you apply your hops. If you just want more hop aroma - use more hops at the place you usually do. If you want a different character of hop aroma, then you look at technique. But if you think you can replace a late boil hop with a dry hop and it's going to be the same thing... Well - it isn't. Or you can just go wild and put em in everywhere - and that has it's charm too.
So, like i said, I wasn't really sure about the point you were making/question you were asking... But that's what I have learned about how hops work from an aroma perspective. Hopefully I have cleared up anything I didn't express clearly before.
TB
