I gotta jump in here, I have lots of firsthand experience with the LS and the SBC..
I am on the fence like you, I love my sbc mainly because they're simple and dirt cheap to fix, bringing me to my first point, LS motors are not cheap to repair.. simple, I can get a waterpump for a sbc for 40$ new.. an ls 150-200.. i could go on about injectors gaskets, etc.. they're cheap to buy but are not cheap to maintain.. now they do not break nearly as much. So there is that, I would say they break 30% less, that's a guess..
all the trucks you have been in have torque management, any 6.0 truck has no power enrichment turned on, these two things make them embarrassing to be in.. its really a joke to let the rest of the drivetrain live.. if you knew that a lq9 was literally a cam and some other small parts away from being an ls2 you might think I am kidding, figure this, a lq4 makes roughly 320hp, an ls2 makes 400, the truck intake is better, the cam is smalller the exhaust is crap.. etc.. i can go on and on.. if you take a 6.0, stick an ebay ls2 or ls6 cam, tune it, disable tq mgmt, enable power enrichment, simply they kick ass.. then add a stroker, make it 416 ci, bigger cam, ported heads etc, they are ground pouders.. every bit as healthy as a 400..
Now, you just spent 3-5 grand making that engine happy and it isn't even in the truck yet.. I digress, I still think in my own warped way that is less work to put aluminum heads, cam, and maybe EFI(choose flavor) than swapping to LS.. 400hp is 400hp.. and to justify swapping you would have to drive the damn thing everyday.. aside the power potential and some of the reliability.. pound for pound I still think for under 500hp you cant go wrong either way, but if you have a fresh motor already in the truck or the parts to do it you might as well stick with the sbc..
