Even companies that manufacture shocks seem to shy away from talking about the particulars of ride quality because that tends to be an extremely subjective opinion.
If you go on a trail run with a dozen other trucks you'll see people with $2000+ worth of boutique shocks who are absolutely certain that's a necessity, you'll see people with any of the countless 2" monotube shocks on the market who are confident they made a good choice and you'll see people with their stock shocks getting to the same campsite seemingly without a problem.
As a consumer this sucks dumpster juice. Everyone has their own past experiences to go on, maybe their brand loyalty, maybe they spent a lot on fancy stuff and want to justify it by declaring it obviously better, maybe there's a lot of personal preference for a certain ride characteristic on certain kinds of roads while loaded a certain way... which won't apply to other drivers on other roads with other trucks. It's not like the ice cream shop where you can try little samples.. if you want to try a new set of shocks on your truck on your familiar roads you need to buy them and install them - and if you're changing ride height you need an alignment afterward too. Pretty big investment just to try something out and see if you like it. So you had better get it right the first time!
Well opinions are like butts, we all got 'em. My opinion is yes a new set of improved quality shocks can go a long way toward freshening up a truck that's a few years old. I still haven't been let down by Bilstein so they're my go-to brand for instant gratification. Other people like pepsi instead of coke, tea instead of coffee.. good luck and let us know what you end up with!
