If you want performance tires, you need to go to 16" and up in wheel size. These are BFG's on 17" US Mags (black 5 spoke similar to the Cragars) on my Duster.
I'm not sure if I agree with your first point though. 16" tires seem to offer very few performance options. It seems like you can still get BFG Sport Comp-2 in the 16"/~26"diameter range (which are OK performance tires)...otherwise, there's not much that I know of for streetable performance rubber... 17" like yours seem to be the smallest inner diameter with good options and even those are staring to become scarce.