I've owned quite a few telescopes over the last 30 odd years. I would say that my 15" dob was definitely the best for visual of the lot. The only drawback was its weight. I ended up using wheel barrow styled handles on it to wheel it in and out, and it was perfect. Just like the other guys in this thread, I'd recommend a dob for visual if you can manage one. The bigger the better, with the trade off being weight and possibly height depending upon how tall you are. There'll be no going back though
You could consider if push-to or go-to were things of value to you as well if you were going down the dob path. I originally preferred star hopping, but as I became older I wanted to spend more time at the eyepiece and less time finding targets so opted for push-to, and finally go-to for my current 9.25" SCT.
Is it likely that you might end up going down the EAA path do you think Rod? If it is, that would also influence your decision quite a lot. With my aging eyes, and not wanting to wear glasses at the eyepiece, EAA is where I've landed and I can't believe how much more of the sky it's opened up for me to look at. The downside of EAA would be setup cost and the need for additional gear to get going for the night. But at least in my case, it was such a good move. My wife may disagree lol