Russ - My experience with Bilstien's is they almost have a magic valve stack that delivers a plush ride in the initial stroke then the valving ramps up nicely the harder they're pushed. It's been a while since I've used a set though.
Most people never experience really good shock valving because the good stuff is expensive and the really good stuff is substantially more. But once you do experience it you're spoiled for life.
Coming from a motorcycle background it is common place to tailor valving to match terrain conditions. The big race teams do the same with their cars. Telemetry and/or good notes allows them to tailor valves and shim stacks to every track with bias to aide extreme corners or G-out sections.
It's hard to obtain one size fits all valving for a smooth interstate travel and good auto-x or road course performance. RideTech or similar 3-way adjustable's would probably be your best bet. They'll allow you to access and adjust hi/low compression and rebound dampening over a relatively wide range with minimal effort.
