"depending how much weight you give to ease of use, bang for buck, how well it keeps settings between changes, and so forth'
Best bang for the buck is Lee of course. For "ease of use" and "keeps settings", I own many dies from some dozen or more brands (several no longer made) and I've never found that to be different with any of them when they are used correctly so I guess I'm not "expert" enough to answer your question!
If I want a specific die with a specific feature I buy it specifically for that, otherwise I just get a Lee set. On average, there is as much difference between common die sets of the same brand as there is between brands.