From what I read / hear from experienced dirt riders, no hinge = better. If there's a hinge, it's solid in other directions, so lateral force is all concentrated on the knee in a fall. If there's no hinge, there's slight to moderate movement allowed in all directions. In dirt, hinge = knee stress in a fall.
That being said I've never crashed a street bike (knock on wood!) so I have no idea of the physics of it.
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