  The confrontation between percolation processes and superconducting
fluctuations to account for the observed enhanced in-plane electrical
conductivity above but near $T_c$ in cuprates is revisited. The cuprates
studied here, La$_{1.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$CuO$_4$,
Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$, and Tl$_2$Ba$_2$Ca$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{10}$, have
a different number of superconducting CuO$_2$ layers per unit-cell length and
different Josephson coupling between them, and are optimally-doped to minimize
$T_c$-inhomogeneities. The excellent chemical and structural quality of these
samples also contribute to minimize the effect of extrinsic
$T_c$-inhomogeneities, a crucial aspect when analyzing the possible presence of
intrinsic percolative processes. Our analyses also cover the so-called high
reduced-temperature region, up to the resistivity rounding onset
$\varepsilon_{onset}$. By using the simplest form of the effective-medium
theory, we show that possible emergent percolation processes alone cannot
account for the measured enhanced conductivity. In contrast, these measurements
can be quantitatively explained using the Gaussian-Ginzburg-Landau (GGL)
approach for the effect of superconducting fluctuations in layered
superconductors, extended to $\varepsilon_{onset}$ by including a total energy
cutoff, which takes into account the limits imposed by the Heisenberg
uncertainty principle to the shrinkage of the superconducting wavefunction. Our
analysis confirms the adequacy of this cutoff, and that the effective
periodicity length is controlled by the relative Josephson coupling between
superconducting layers. These conclusions are reinforced by analyzing one of
the recent works that allegedly discards the superconducting fluctuations
scenario while supporting a percolative scenario for the enhanced conductivity
above $T_c$ in cuprates.
