Ask those guys who have been telling you to notch things down if the Speed 90 is enough of a downgrade. It will be fine to go with what they say.
I'll start with the noodle guy. But I am in the mood for some story telling so here goes:
This noodle guy moved his business to where I work ( a stone throw away ) early of this year. I tried his dumpling noodle and I became hooked on it. He is a well known figure in the local TT scene; winning three year back to back veteran MS champion is no easy feat ( that was just before Covid pandemic struck ). I do not know him well enough prior but as I became his regular noodle customer it became easier to strike chat with him.
He is also a Hinoki user, J-Pen style with only single side rubber ( Tenergy / Dignics 05 ). He told me he had used Darker Speed 90, BTY G-Max and all the other BTY J-Pen One Ply Hinoki variation. He has been playing TT since elementary school and my guess is that he has more than 40 years TT experience. He has also played with the legendary BTY Kim Taek Soo 10.5mm as well but he commented BTY-KTS was too bouncy and hard to control even for himself. Currently he uses one of the BTY J-Pen Cypress variation ( not sure which one as he switches around between them ).
Coming back to USDC question, yes! He is the one who told me to use DS90 and not my 10.5mm custom blade. He was the one who told me all out attack is nice but in actual game, you need to strike a balance between offense and defense and he said for me to use DS90 as he was also a prior user before, so he knows what he is talking about, I guess.
Like I said before, winning was not my priority previously as I was more of a hobby player who is more interested in attaining those high feeling. i.e., those HULK SMASH moments. But it has become boring so now I seek some other form of feeling; perhaps feeling of winning going forward?
Now on to the second very senior veteran pips player. He uses C-Pen balsa wood with short pips ( very He Zhiwen'ish ) . He too says to use a more control set-up and play with rally in mind and less one shot one kill if I want to move higher up the rank. It is easy to one shot one kill those lower rank player, but it is a diminishing return strategy as I move higher up the rank.
So here it is, end of my story telling session.
NB:
1. This DS90 set up is 27g lighter than my 10.5mm Full Gozo Set-up
2. It is lunch time here now, time for some dumpling noodle.