piston questions

I'll admit most engines I have rebuilt have been pretty much stock, with maybe a 1 or two step over, cam. And before this one I never had a disaster like this one became.
I have put a few together since that disaster and went fine. I have never paid the extra money previously for a balance job, the machine shops I've used have never mentioned it, (and they're in business to make money, plus jobs they've touched that go bad don't do much for repeat business). Ones I don't use no more, I don't use no more because they retired/ closed up after many years in business. Not because of having problems with the work they've done for me.
(Was it here or Moparts) I put up a post asking about the necessity/ advantage of having a 360 neutral balanced.

I will say one thing once this one is done .. I want the best motor I can put together, I want the highest CR at the end of the day I can run 87 with. I'll be damned if I'm paying a buck a gallon more for premium. What ever happened to 10-20¢ a gallon difference between grades? When that went to hell it did so really quickly. I guess these guys don't want to sell much premium pump gas with that scam in place. This isn't going to be a 1000 mile a year build. More like a 10000-15000 a year build.