Hi Diane37,
Post #2 here has more about how to decide on layers but in essence it comes down to your own personal experience based on either testing a mattress in person or on buying a mattress that uses the knowledge and experience of an online source and fits the “averages” for your body type and sleeping positions and has the ability to make adjustments if you are outside the “averages” of other people.
It takes many years of experience to be able to predict what someone else will “feel” on a mattress based on specs and even then there is no certainty … only “best efforts” … until someone has actually slept on it so you will always be dependent on either your own testing or on your experience sleeping on a mattress you’ve purchased online in which case the ability to make adjustments or exchange the layers if you haven’t tested it in person would be an important part of your personal value equation and “risk assessment”. There is no way to avoid this reality.
Trying to predict how a mattress “feels” based on specs alone is an exercise in frustration and will generally end up leading to “information overload” or “paralysis by analysis” with no meaningful frame of reference.
Latex is a more costly material than other types of foam and there is no getting around this but there are also many smaller manufacturers across the country that sell latex mattresses locally that are good quality and good value and if one of these is local to you then you can have the best of both worlds and test the specific latex designs they have available for PPP and have better value as well. For those that don’t have better value latex mattresses available locally then more costly options such as the PLB or a choice that has more risk such an online retailer or manufacturer that still allows for fine tuning or layer exchanges after a purchase (and which will end up working well for the large majority of people) may be the “best” value option available for that person.
I know from your previous posts that you’ve had the chance to test Savvy Rest in Dunlop so you would have a good sense of what that type of mattress “feels” like. I scanned your past posts but I’m not sure where you are (unless I missed it) so if you let me know the city or zip where you are I’d be happy to let you know of any other sources of latex mattresses (possibly including Talalay) that may be within reasonable driving distance so you can have a better frame of reference for your choice.
Phoenix