Aloha, You wrote a lot and I will just address the key questions. I went with the zone lift 6.5 and have had no problems. I did small adjustments to get her to a 8.5”. As for UCA, it depends on how bad your front angles are. I choose to go with Cognito UCA, because my truck isn’t a road princess. Bds makes zone lift kits. I did the add leaf, to prevent my truck from having the rack. McGaughys kits allow you to go from 7 to 9 inch in lift. Both kits are solid and just because you buy a expensive kit, doesn’t it make it good. I did add the rear wheel adapter to correct the stance and went with Bora 2”. I am running LRG with zero offset. 35x12.50x20. I went with a bds traction bar, because I tow my toys around. My truck setup Picture before I put my Oem tow mirrors on.