I’m actually in the other camp.
I try and use off the shelf carbs most of the time.
Especially nowadays........ there’s some pretty good stuff out there now, for reasonable money.
For hot street/strip builds we use the QFT street Q’s, and Holley race Brawlers pretty often, and they’ve been pretty good right ootb.
The key is buying the right one.
I feel like most people buy carbs that are too big for the application if you’re trying to find the best balance between streetability and power.
It’s like the OP’s 850 Demon in its original form.
Ran decent, power was good....... couldn’t get it to leave well.
It’s too big for his combo.
Had it been a 750, you could have added some adjustable air bleeds to the main body, and with a little tuning it would have been fine at the line, and would have given up almost nothing on the top end in a combo like that.