There are also plenty of people here with high mileage LX's on all original parts.You mean replacing the stock shocks On LC? That’s pretty cheap. Do LC springs and KDSS go bad at 180k? There plenty of people here with high mileage LC still on original shocks.
Does 35 require sensor lift? If so, then will that make ride/handling worst? Does that put more pressure on AHC? Will that affect AHC component durability down the road?
Any mod can have collateral effects. That doesn't negate the benefits of the mod or make it comparatively better/worse than other mods. However, there are no 'Sensor Lifts Killed My Suspension' threads...
The arguments you make are all reasons why I purchased a Cruiser over the LX. In hindsight, I would have gone the other direction. And for three primary reasons: 1) Availability. Much easier to find a quality LX that is close vs LC simply because of volume sold. 2) Price. I had found that you could buy an similar year/miles LX for $3-5k less than an LC. Supply/demand and market perception drive this. 3) AHC. Having owned (and still own) an 100 LX I wasn't crazy about that system. From all I've read, the 200 LX is an order of magnitude better. And it saves a $3-5k suspension mod. It's a hard argument that an LC is a better truck when you can get a more quiet truck with a starting point that is $5-10k less (if you include the cost of suspension mods). True, you may have some baseline maintenance to do, depending upon age and miles. But for a moderate touring build the LX is a really good value in the market. Now if you're going to push the limits on trail usage and want to maximize travel then, yeah, a King 3.0 (or whatever) will get you that last mile of trail. But that's where we need to be careful on differentiating 'better'. If you look at the LCDC thread, most of those lean toward the touring side of the spectrum. And those boys covered a lot of cool trail. For that type of use, the LX scratches a lot of important itches.