Street shock absorber recommendation

KYB's are the France of shocks, they act tough then surrender immediately.
Haha that's a good one.
I don't like the KYBs either - as you mentioned the valving is backwards giving you a hasher ride but poor performance, run Monroe shocks if your looking at cheaper sets.
I run Koni's on most of my cars and they are very good shocks, only downside is they need to be removed from the car to adjust them but its not too bad.
Just bought a set of Bilsteins for my next project to see what they're like.