Tekton First Time Buyer Prospect Seeking Advise from Tekton Owners

No, not true at all. Stick with what you asked for in the first place, information from those with actual experience. Way too many people on this site blather about that which they know not. Don't be taken in.

I would give Eric a call and tell him about the speakers you have liked and don't like as well as your current plan. I am sure he will have some ideas of what should work for you.

Excellent idea.

That mirrors advice teajay gave me, to stick with soft dome tweeters. 

It may help to understand, a lot of the magic is in the MTM array. Eric's design philosophy is grounded in low mass/low stiction. Using an array of very small drivers (tweeters) to cover a range usually reserved for larger drivers (midrange) lowers mass tremendously and explains the extraordinary sound of Moab, Encore, Ulfberht. Double Impacts get a lot of that by having roughly half the MTM array. Then as you go down the line the same principle applies its just tapered off with smaller arrays, until eventually there is no array its just the drivers.

At that point his advantage is still there, because its still involved in selecting the drivers and crossovers and especially the cabinet. Guys hate me for pointing this out but the reality is most speakers are made for women, women don't want to see a speaker, so most speakers are way smaller than they should be. This makes it hard in so many ways. Eric avoids all of that with his designs. 

This all adds up to a bottom line which is what nwres just said get the largest Tekton you can. But that advice sounds almost too simple to be true, which is why I take the time to explain all the reasoning behind why it is true.

Its hard enough finding people who have personally listened and compared different models. To even begin to answer your question would call for comparing those different upgrades. Which maybe there is someone out there who has, but I don't fancy your odds much.  

Even if you find one though guess what? Still can't answer! Because no one can tell you what you should do. 

All I can say is, having bought Moabs with the standard upgrades (better wire, caps, terminals) and then heard how good these things are, my only regret is not going for even more. In other words right now you are probably a lot like I was, wondering if even these things are really worth it at all. So maybe upgrades will help to make sure they are. What happened with me was they are so good its obvious no upgrades were necessary to blow away everything else I've heard. 

Which only raises more questions- so why if no upgrades are necessary, then why is my only regret not going for even more? Because for me when I find something crazy high value the next step is max it out all I can. But for you it might be more like great then I can spend the money somewhere else.  

Everyone's situation is different. Even your situation is different depending on your system development plans. I would just get the most Tekton you can afford right now. Whether that is an upgraded Mini-Lore or another model. Order, relax, enjoy. Don't make it harder than it has to be.