well its nice that VT has stopped in, however aside from defending himself (which he is entitled to do) and correcting a posted for wrong cams that were never in the running anyhow, its become a pising match... so to actually answer some of your questions.
MMR is a great shop, they are not the best and that is why they are not on anyone top pick.. VT has a long standing rep for being badass... so far, i have yet to hear otherwise.. however they have a backlog a mile long (because they are so good) and thus people choose to go with other companies, MMR for example. MMR has not done anything shady or irreputable that i have noticed (doesnt mean it hasnt happened) and are cheaper the VT with no wait time/alot less wait time. this however does have a few exceptions...
1 - vt build with top quality parts on all engines, MMR does not.. MMR does have upgrade options to meet the same criteria of VT engines and beyond (this can be misleading as MMR has a different way of rating engines/upgrades)
2 - MMR is not as well known... some how VT got in with a few known people.. did good work, and exploded. MMR is arguably as good, they just never got the rep/customer base/recognition that VT has.
bottom line, you cant go wrong with either VT or MMR. MMR is only slightly cheaper (once you get ALL the same parts). it comes down to preference and time. do you have time to burn? dont need it immediatly? want a company that has a rather insane backing of just about every body on the boards? go VT... want a good setup quicker and with a lil more money in the wallet then do MMR.
as far as your thoughts on the loss of power. you are comparing apples to oranges. when looking at blower vs NA the setups are vastly different and thus need a different midset. going longtubes will NOT lose you power, period. its all a balancing act from restriction vs backpressure vs scavenging.... our local VT poster might be willing to give a little bit of insight on this as i dont know the finite details about this area to give a solid backing of why it works the way it does.
for your choices in parts, worry not.. the ported bullitt, heads, and cams will not loser power when adding longtubes.
Torinalth