I don’t think a 20mm axle would make that much difference over a 15mm personally, not as much as larger stanchions would make anyway.
Do you “need” burly forks? Depends how important this is to you. I used to get on fine with an old set of 2001 Marzocchi Z1’s at 130mm travel, really plush fork. But as soon as I rode a set of Fox’s (ironic in this context) with 32mm stanchions, I couldn’t go back as I then noticed how flexy the Marzocchi’s were all the time… This was a number of years ago by the way.
How heavy are you, and what brakes (and rotor size) are you running, as both could be a very contributing factor too…