The balance between courage and caution, risk and reward is the dilemma
that faces contestants, and part of what makes DOND so entertaining.
I did an analysis of all the 362 shows aired up to 19/1/07 (excluding Show 312 not aired), and discovered these stats to show how much this courage can be rewarded or punished in later rounds:

The banker's offers (including post deal proveout) increased from the 8 box to 5 box stage 228 times = 63.15%

The banker's offers (including post deal proveout) increased from the 5 box to 2 box stage 149 times = 41.3%

This suggests that it is usually good to have courage when going deeper into the game, though that is by no means always rewarded, but it is far riskier to no deal at the 5 box stage to see the banker's offer increase.

Haven't we done this already?

My comments on the previous thread still make sense, by the way!

Yes that thread goes up to Show 252 and your comments were very helpful as always, but I've updated the stats to bring us up to Show 362 which shows the trend is broadly the same, and your original comments still very much apply. I would have added the update to that original thread but it was originally posted in the main DOND section before we had a designated stats section!

doesn't it suggest the opposite?

ie that most people would be better off by dealing before they get to the 2 box offer - courage seems to be punished in most cases after that

from a percentages pov the only reason to keep nodealing after the 5 box stage is that for the 41% who get a bigger offer, the offer is significantly bigger and outweighs the poor odds

so unless you've got a big spread (eg four blues and a power five) and want to take the gamble, you should take the box 5 offer

While going from 8 box to 5 box is risky, most of the time it pays dividends, unless have an unstable board at 8 box such as 50K 250K and 6 blues, where statistically it is better to deal then as crash and burn becomes a far more likelier scenario.

5 box to 2 box usually doesn't pay off, but as the odds reduce, so the rewards become greater as contestants like Bunney, Claudine, and Jennifer have discovered.

Although no dealing at 2 box gives you better odds of success being 50/50, there is often a huge gap between the offer and the lowest amount, and most contestants are understandably reluctant to take that risk when the drop is too far.