OK, my take. I think new-comers are confronted with the enormous ocean of choices. Thousands things, unclear how they relate.
With blades, the most helpful page for me was
https://ttgearlab.com/. Even though, they seemingly add just 1 more dimension to the speed, the hold/kick, it makes huge difference to see the blades in 2D plane, how they relate. There is more dimensions, but it helps to not see the blades on single speed-line.
The *good* of course is relative to the person. I have a friend who plays LP on BH, and wants as slow blade as possible. He plays inverted on FH, and has such tremendous speed in hand, that it absolutely doesn't matter that his blade is crazy slow, on our level of course. So for him, the slow defensive feeling blade is good. I like to loop, so I like a blade with good hold. The OP also says he likes to loop on both FH and BH, so according to that, a blade with more hold will be good for him. For say Harimoto, a blade with slightly less hold is preferable (good), due to his style. And for Der_Echte, we know what is good. (Your idea with blades is the reason I wanted to have "bow" emoticon). That is what good means to me.
I think, although it costs money, it is not so bad to accidentally buy a blade which you don't like. It is preferably not really expensive blade. You can still learn a lot from it. On the other hand, I never had positive experience with cheaper blades. They were always so-so. Viscaria is not a cheap blade, but it is great, sorry, good for me. I don't need faster. I thought similar blade with limba top would possibly be better (bit slower, more hold), tried a cheaper one. It can't even lay next to Viscaria. Anyways, for the OP, I would think a blade with more hold can be good. Which speed is hard to say.
With rubbers, I hope someone else explains. For sure, the *good* works the same way, very personal. I don't like catapulty tensor rubbers. I learned I like rubbers which are slow on slow impact, like slow push. Sometimes I see Chinese train the push. Their push jumps two times on the table. It is easier to do with a rubber which is slow on slow impact. Also I like this dense feeling of H3 sponge when I hit it with FH, even the new hybrids with hard sponge doesn't feel completely so. But that is just me. Luckily, with rubbers, it is easier to try and change. The only thing I'd not recommend is to buy two same rubbers for FH and BH. The more rubbers you try, the better now (to the certain degree).
To conclude - it gets better. OP - you started good thread. When I made that fun about shop - don't take this personally, the question I see a bit silly, but still, we all love A or B questions. Best, truly...