FWIW, I have the same brake philosophy at MTPockets. Best pads available and the least expensive rotors. There is no question that brake lining compounds vary in their mechanical effectiveness. This is why you see three or four grade options for most applications.
Usually the options are street vs. racing, so I disagree with you. Street pads are fine for street cars.
The other set of options you have on pads are organic, semi metalic, ceramic, etc and again for a street car, this isn't really a 'choice' per say. You should install the same material as the OEM as that is the material the car was designed to use.
Rotors on the other hand (unless we are talking abut drilled or slotted varriants) have limited abilities to be differintiated between them.
Rotors on the other hand can be made from hugely differing qualities of metal. Not all 'steel' is the same.
Rotors also have to be precisely machined to work correctly which takes expensive equipment to stay in tolerance.
The other issue you have with rotors is the initial thickness (there is always a range) in my experience, if you measure the thickness of some cheap ebay rotors, they barley meet the min spec from the OEM while some of the better quality rotors have more thickness to them (still within spec) More metal mass = better heat handling, it is physics, you can't change or deny it.
Bottom line, is both pads and rotors are equally important. However, the pad choice is usually easier to make
street car = street pad
ceramic OEM = buy replacement ceramic
Follow the above advice and you can't go wrong.
That said, there are lots of rotors and pads on the market that work very well. Stick to bigger names and buy quality parts at a good price instead of just buying based on price alone.
The duralast from autozone usually get good reviews here, rotors have a 2 year full replacement warranty. I know of no one else that does that.
