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@villa-ru
After reading this thread I was a bit surprised about the research into rolling resistance so I thought I would test it out for myself in a 'real world' setting to see what the difference is.
First week: I put a 25 on the rear and kept a 23 up front. Both pumped up to 100psi. My commute is 8.8miles and has two good long uninterrupted stretches (0.8mi and 0.9mi) so I can get up to a good speed and maintain it.
For the first couple of days it was hard to discern much difference, but as I got more 'attuned' to the road feel it became clear that there is a significant impact. The rear in particular felt much more 'smooth' and had a better 'flow'. It needed a bit less rider input to maintain the cruising speed. Up front I began to really feel the tyre 'sticking' to the road and there was a sense of the rest of the bike pushing it forward.
When I checked back my average commute times on Strava I was an amazing 0.6mph faster on average.
Second week: As a control, I swapped the tyres and pumped back up to 100psi. By now it was easy to feel the difference. The front (now 25) was rolling along freely, but at the back I was really feeling having to push the 23 to keep it at the same pace.
I was only able to record 3 days as it was raining heavily so I took the tube the other days, but it was 0.4mph slower than the previous week, but still 0.2mph faster than my average on both 23s.
In conclusion, it does seem that the rolling resistance of tyres has an impact in the 'real world' and I am changing back to 25 at the back, 23 at the front as I only have one 25.