Yuri Blanarovich wrote:
But...
if the standing wave is made of forward and reverse traveling waves, should
not we be trying to keep the resistance low in the system? Or is it
insignificant?

The I^2*R losses in the conductors depend upon the net
current which is the phasor sum of the forward current
and reflected current. Since the net current is lower
above the coil in a mobile center-loaded antenna, the
resistance of the stinger is not as important as the
resistance of the bottom shaft which carries maximum
current. Whether the I^2*R losses in a stinger are
significant or not is a subjective call. If one is
looking for that last 0.1 dB that will win a mobile
antenna shootout, replacing the stainless steel
stinger with one-inch copper tubing might do the
trick.

Incidentally, in a thin-wire 1/2WL dipole, the reflected
current arriving back at the feedpoint is approximately
90% of the forward current, i.e. only about 10% of the
current is lost to radiation in its round trip to the
end of the antenna and back. The same is true of forward
and reflected voltage. The feedpoint impedance of a
1/2WL dipole results from the superposition of and
interference between the forward and reflected waves
on the standing-wave antenna at the feedpoint.

If we made a Z0=600 ohm 1/4WL open stub out of resistance
wire such that the feedpoint impedance is 73 ohms, we
would have a pretty good simulation of an antenna where
energy is converted to heat instead of being radiated.
The voltages and currents on the stub would correlate
closely with the voltages and currents on a 1/2WL dipole.
--
73, Cecil, w5dxp.com