I'm just curious why some manufacturers stock their bolt action rifles with pressure points and others don't. Has anyone ever actually determined which approach is inherently more accurate? Or is the jury still out on that one?

I would say because it it easier to simply cast the stock or machine the stock with a pressure point in place than trying to make the stock appear to be floated evenly.

When you speak of accuracy, you need only look at the guns of competitors to see what works. I think I am safe in saying that the majority of winning guns are free floated. And before someone brings up pressure points and skinny profiled barrels, the majority of these that I have seen have responded better when floated.

Ditto Westpac

The pads built into many stocks actually help deaden the vibration of the barrel and effectively interrupt the wave in the barrel in an effort to improve accuracy. Even the molded stocks can have them. The new Marlin has one on either side of the bottom of the molded forend.
As far as pure accuracy goes, most barrels that I have played with like to float. A fully bedded barrel can be accurate but that begs the question of how accurate is accurate. I had a floated 222 Rem many years ago that would shoot .25 with exteme regularity. My "large" gun is good for about .75 with the right load with it's fully bedded barrel. With the accuracy of CNC machined stocks available today (no more 1964 Winchester floaters) there is more to those pads than just not floating the barrel.

Thanks for the insight guys.

The winning competitors don't use light weight factory barrels! I've tried it both ways on several factory barrels, some liked to be floated, some I had to put pressure pads back in. It depends on the barrel, some of the factory jobs need the added dampening from the pressure pad to give the best accuracy. Many of the #1, or featherweight barrels will need the pressure. Right now I've got 3 factory barrels that will double their group size if I float them, already tried that! My 3 aftermarket barrels are floated.