"Is a block stronger at std bore?" The most material you can have in any cylinder wall, will be the strongest. Period. Whether it's feasible or not...thats subjective. I'd rather have a perfect round, straight, correctly placed bore with the right wall finish, then a std bore size..lol. I also own a good sonic tester. So I can see the difference between them.
For my builds, I've used Ross dished (like DJ), Ross flat top, Diamond flat top, and have aset of Diamond dishes arriving today. I've used factory rods and Eagle H beams. I've used MP cast, Eagle cast, and Callies forged in various builds. What you need to decide on is intended use (be honest with yourself), intedned growth (again, be honest), and total amount of cash ON HAND (stuff "coming with the tax refund" or "when my other car sells" or something dont cut it) and again, you must be brutally honest there too. And consider all things. A fresh 416, with $6500 in it, sitting under a swap meet 750 DP in front of a stock 904 and one leg rear, with a 2 row 18" radiator, and in a car with no frame connectors is a time bomb waiting to be dropped. Engines need support systems to be utilized. You should account for this. I know MANY guys that will spend on engine, and skimp everywhere else. It never fails they are sitting home, or broken, instead of building a nice solid stock displacement engine and supporting it properly and achieving their goals. I'll post a typical build in another thread...I'll ge too wordy and I'm sure there will be debate on it...lol.