We're way overthinking this.
With the stock pads, the bike required a very significant pull on the lever to get the bike to stop. The pads also got hot quickly, and it required an even higher pull on the lever to get the bike to stop. I upgraded the pads because I wanted better performance / better feel / less lever effort due to higher grip pads.
The new pads haven't provided as much of an improvement as I hoped. Initially they were terrible, but I know that the EBC's take a little while to bed in. Now they are probably up to what I was feeling with the stock pads. I hope they continue to improve.
None of this is particularly relevant to how the chassis feels while under braking, which actually is a noticeable improvement regardless of the pads; it's much, much harder to bottom out the front fork than it ever was on the 08-12 bikes.