I admit my sample size is small, but my observation on the diff between .5/1 and 1/2 on Party is simply this: Occasionally, you will hit a table at 1/2 that has more decent players than fish.

I track the game live, and I pay close attention to the tables' V$IP on 1/2. I like it to be above 30% (not including me!). I only recently added this feature to my tracker, so I never did it for checked it .5/1.

However, if I back track - here are the sum totals

1/2: Agg 0.551 V$IP: 29.79 ~2400 hands (tight passive)
.5/1: Agg: 0.445 V$IP: 35.61 ~2000 hands (loose passive)

I played on a table today where for 2 orbits the table V$IP was 18%! Didn't see any of you sharks there.

So, IMHO, the difference is that on the 1/2 tables (Party), you might want to drop if the majority of players are clueful.