Get the kings, I bet they'll be fine. Comparing it to my experience may be flawed since I ride SS. Maybe the pedal pressure is much higher than you on a geared bike. Rebuilding them is pretty fun anyways and it sounds like you haven't had to on the tandem one. Maybe i got a few bad apples and was rebuilding them wrong. They are neat to play with and they look cool, and when they work I do like them. Angry bees. Like Dave says, if you don't get them maybe you'll regret it. You can always sell them again since people do love them.
Yeah rims are expensive... all of it is.. But if you're over 200lbs all decked out you probably need something stronger. Especially if you like to flog the crap out of them. Although that number on the weight is almost purely arbitrary... Build what you want, ride it, and fix it till you find something that works. That's what I think most of us have done and you also in your years riding. Bombproof never have to touch it will cost more $$ though and it's still a guess. And bling obviously adds to that. All you have is real world experiences to go off of where people tend to embellish. If it works for Adam though.... man i'd bet it'd work for an extremely large population of recreational riders. If you huck the gnar like Adam, you are in a different league and should expect to pony up the $$ to make it work for you and have more trial and error.
Dave, you should tackle the AZT next! that was a different animal. phew.
Anyone ever run an Onyx hub?