Yes, my $300 Cobalt Flux that is a year and three months old which still allows for SDG's on 7's, 8's, or however high you can get and can handle 10 footers with the only misses being the fault of the player really makes a lot of difference.
As for the rest of the pads that you mentioned, I'd peruse the various threads related to each pad then make the decision based on that.
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