This has almost turned into the age old debate regarding car manufacturers. We all have our reasons for recommending our favorite radio.
OP here – I’m thrilled with how this thread is going! My kit is pretty much complete at this point (going to write a blog post going over it sometime soon), but I’ve really appreciated reading everything here, and if this thread can help any other SOTA-newcomers figure out the right balance of price, function & weight it’ll be well worth it.