I did a full manual reverse valve body swap once on a v8 s10, It was great as a weekend cruiser and drag racer but when I would have to use it to commute to work bc my other vehicle was down it wasn't very pleasant to live with. I found shifting it to be really annoying and less pleasant than either a manual trans or regular automatic.
My K10 has a 700r4/4l70 hybrid trans, 700 style TV cable valve body and K case with 4l70 hard parts, wide bands and custom clutch packs. Corvette servos for a mildly firmer shift and a torque convertor that stalls just shy of 2k (that was an accident, I was trying to hit about 1750 using off the shelf parts and missed). It's a fantastic trans, but I don't think I would ever do it all again on a TV style valve body. The computer controlled newer trans are a better starting point, I think next will be a 6.0/6l80e combo for me.