[the prophet]

Try it without any oil. See what happens, and report back!

Who knows, maybe you'll prove yourself wrong or something. My bet is that it does matter and there is likely some fixed amount of damping, you just can't adjust it in that one. But then again, I'm still a bit baffled by the design of those forks, how only one of them has preload and no damping adjustability while the other is the opposite.

The left leg has the spring in it and the preload adjuster. The oil bathes the spring for less friction against the inner fork leg walls plus the air gap is needed for final bottoming resistance.

 

[the prophet]

The difference in oil levels between the two legs are because of the volume used by the valving assembly in the right fork leg. The oil level is listed without the valving assembly in the fork.