+1
There's no evidence high dividend paying stocks, or stocks paying any dividend at all, perform better than any other stock on average. So all else being equal, it's total returns that matter. It doesn't matter how those returns arrive, either through dividends or capital gains, just so long as they arrive.
One area that matters a great deal, though, is whether the income constraint imposes more discipline on the retiree. It's easy for a total return investor to say "Hell, I can pull 4% real out of my portfolio forever" and hope for the best. If you have to generate your spending needs from dividends and interest you may come to the conclusion that you can't spend 4% because it's hard to get that kind of income from most stock / bond portfolios in this market.
On the other hand, trying to generate 4% income could cause some folks to build risky, high income, death machine portfolios (like that guy several years back who was going to live off High Yield Bond fund distributions or folks who loaded up on the juicy yields of the big banks pre-2008.) In that case, you'd be better off going the total return route with a more traditional asset allocation.