Hi craz4cakes.
It is important that you assess and choose your mattress by testing it in the flat position that best suits your sleeping style (which in your case seems to be a back primary sleeping position) While both items you looked at use quality and durable componentry be sure to select the one that best fits your preferred sleeping style. As Naturepedic gives you the best support when on your back it looks like this would be the better choice of the two. I would advise against choosing a product where you have to use other things like a “lumbar support” feature to fix the mattress and make up for the lack of supportiveness. This would be one of those cases of “theory at the distance” as you it does not seem that you had the chance to potentially try a lumbar support to assess how this may feel for you.
You can certainly tell more in 10 minutes about how a system will perform for you than without trying the product at all and usually your initial impressions would be quite accurate and as long as you are choosing something using good quality materials you can usually trust your initial thoughts and what your body is telling you when lying on the product. There is a very good article about this written by Jeff (Beducator and one of our experts) that you may wish to peruse.
As far as the adjustable bases go… some people like the action of having a lumbar adjustment while others don’t. For some people with special needs this is a “must” rather than a preference and for others this is just another feature that they may enjoy with having a push back like this in the lumbar area.
Depending on your size and the brand you are considering the extra bit of height added in the lumbar region by the panel that is tilting or pushing up, the lumber adjustment can “hit” the exact area of your lumbar but for many bases this is usually “hitting” in the lower thoracic region and this may be a variable that you may wish to check on. Then again some people with specific needs may enjoy having a push back like this in the lumbar area and others don’t so I would not be able to predict if you would like lumbar adjustment feature or not… this would be something that you have to try out in person, but again I would not look at this as a fix to a mattress that does not suit you or that you don’t like, I would just look at it as option of an adjustable bed that you prefer or use once in a while and it certainly should not be used as a band aid on a mattress that is not right for you…
With any good latex mattress (or any mattress with good componentry) the amount or rise that this lumbar units give is low enough and would not stress or damage the mattress above. Just make sure to check that any mattress you are considering is suitable for an adjustable power base.
Manufacturers are constantly offering new products and it would be too big of a job for anyone to provide and update these listings in a retail landscape that is constantly changing and with the World Market Furniture happening right now in Las Vegas there are quite a few new introductions s Rize is coming up with 2 new models with side to side lumbar support that may be of interest to you, but I don’t expect to see these beds available until late in the spring. It seems that one of them is for lower budgets and the other is a more premium version.
You can find more information about choosing an adjustable bed in post #3 here and the main adjustable bed topic that it links to that can help you choose an adjustable bed based on price vs features comparisons and also includes some retailers that you can use as good sources of information about the features of the adjustable beds they carry and as pricing references as well (in post #6in the main adjustable bed topic). Of course there are many other sources as well and prices can change on a regular basis so I would also include your own internet searching in your research. I would also keep in mind that online advertised prices are often price controlled so make sure you call the stores you are considering to find out their best prices rather than just looking at websites.
I would consider all the major adjustable bed manufacturers to be closely comparable in terms of reliability so I would use price and feature comparisons to choose between them.
I hope this helps and I would be interested to find out what you end up deciding
Phoenix