Fully agree. Deng seems on the ball, gets them out in a few months, don't really care if they're just some frame he picked out of a catalog, they work they work. I haven't heard anything for Ashton in forever.
I to this day never really 'get' grinds. When i ground my rim all it did was make the brake really slippy and the pads wore down stupidly quickly, also I've never ridden a bike with a grind that I thought was anywhere near a decent working brake.
Oh sorry, i guess they've stopped selling them. Crazy! They are similar to the Echo 07 pads on tartybikes, but i can't vouch for those. I've got like 6 brand new pairs at home too!