I've got side reasoning for my binding and ski choices anyways. Where I live, if i were to do any "proper" touring and backcountry skiing as most of you are familiar with, it would involve about a 3 hour drive to get somewhere with "real" mountains and require a sled to get close enough. I don't want to do that, I want to take a quick lap after work on the hill I live on. I've got about 800 vertical feet of a cleared powerline and part of the Pipeline access road coming off the top of a hill near my house, that's going to be my main skiing area with this setup. Weight is not a particular concern as there isn't really a ton of vert or distance to cover, and I would like to be able to ski and enjoy the boots and skis at my local area so I can get some more use out of them.
I'm honestly looking for that holy grail 50/50 set up but I've got multiple pairs of other skis to choose from on any given day so I wouldn't be skiing my touring gear inbounds in conditions that are not conducive to it. A big and somewhat heavy ski like the Icelantic Pioneer 109 is ok to me, as is putting a beefier and heavier binding like the Shift on it. It's going to see mostly resort days and single laps near my house after work. My resort days are way way lighter than any of you think.. majority of the season I share a 700 acre 42 run mountain with about 200 other people. Plenty of space and snow for everyone.
Oh yeah, the reason I'm only considering the Shift and the Fristich Tecton is because they both have elasticity in the toe and the heels for release. Reducing the potential chance of injury is incredibly important to me.. I don't want to miss any days of skiing!