Hi KLW,
It’s good to hear that you tested them again because in “theory” the Essense would seem to be a more suitable choice for most people who spend time sleeping on their sides.
It certainly uses high quality materials that are more durable than the materials in your Sealy and it doesn’t have any “weak links” in its design so from that perspective it would be a much better choice yes.
Other than that … there is more in post #13 here about the “value” of a mattress purchase and value is always relative to how a mattress compares to other mattresses that are available to you that you are also considering but it seems to me that with the discount it’s certainly a “fair” price and if you add in your ability to use your credit that wouldn’t be available somewhere else it would be better “value” yet so it seems to me that it would make a good choice.
Phoenix