Hi EZ4HZ,
There are three main types of foam materials which are polyfoam, memory foam, and latex foam. The tuft and needle uses 3 bonded layers of 1.8 - 2 lb polyfoam which are a good quality material.
There is more information about polyfoam comfort layers in this article and about polyfoam support layers in this article. Polyfoam is the most common foam material used in the industry and it’s the material that you will most commonly find in the comfort layers of most innerspring mattresses (although they are generally lower quality and less durable versions of polyfoam than Tuft & Needle is using) and is the material that you will also find in most sofas as well. It is generally a lower cost foam compared to specialty foams like memory foam or latex although it comes in a wide rage of firmness levels and foam density levels that are more or less durable.
The Tuft and Needle is a firmer polyfoam mattress that is an “all or nothing” choice which means that in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) it will be the “best” choice for a relatively small percentage of the population, a “good” choice for a slightly larger percentage, an “OK” choice for a larger percentage yet, and an “unsuitable choice” for the rest so it’s “value” would depend on what would be “good enough” for you, where you are in the range between “princess and the pea” and “I can sleep on anything”, and whether your actual sleeping experience indicates that it’s “the best” or a “good” or an “OK” choice for you compared to the other mattresses you could have purchased and the options they have available to fine tune the mattress after a purchase without having to return it.
They have a great return policy which means that you can decide whether it’s a good “match” for you based on your actual sleeping experience and if it isn’t then there is no cost to return it and start all over again. A forum search on Tuft Needle will bring up more information and feedback about their mattress.
The other mattresses you are considering are memory foam mattresses (that use one or more layers of memory foam on top of a polyfoam support core) which is a slow response material. There is more about the pros and cons of memory foam in this article.
When you can’t test a mattress in person for PPP then a more detailed conversation with the manufacturer will be one of the most important parts of your purchase (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here) along with the options you have after a purchase to either fine tune the mattress or exchange or return it. Your local testing on different materials and different types of mattresses will be the most reliable way to know which types of materials or mattresses you tend to prefer.
Phoenix