Hi Ray,
You are not ranting at all Ray. And you are right about all the confusion out there. I design my products differently than the usual. Instead of choosing the so called right tube first and then finding the parts that suppose to fit, I worked for years testing parts and designs, and then found the right tube.
With that said, there an exception or two, such as I wanted a tube that did not need a buffer stage. That one criteria alone put to rest some tube types that had too high of Rp (plate resistance) since the highs would be somewhat sacrificed without an added buffer stage.
I wanted a preamplifier that did not altar or add cosmetics to the sound to "enhance" it. Keep things simple and if someone wants to "enhance" the sound, they can do it with the source, amp, ICs, speakers, or some other brand of preamplifier. My designs are not SS or tubey sounding, but clear, transparent, letting through what is given to it by the source.
Hope this helps Ray.
Steve