Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm probably going to wait until Consumer Reports reviews new All Seasons (I heard they may post an update in September). They've never reviewed the BFG Long trail T/A Tour (read: not the radial) and that's up there is my options list with the Continental CrossContact LX (LRR).
I'll read reviews with some skepticism.
Slowmover, good call on the tread life. I had a somewhat obvious light bulb moment the other day. It occurred to me that tread life not only means how long one will keep a set of tires, but also how long a tire will retain its best qualities. So a tire with excellent wet traction, but poor tread life will deteriorate (and be less grippy) more quickly and be bald sooner.
I'm imagining a graph in my mind where two lines intersect:
As an aside, I'm starting to think that UTQG ratings are not terribly useful when comparing from brand to brand (only within a given brand).