Heavy rider looking to buy first decent full suss frame – have option of either shock at same price.

Know very little of shock performance, just know that it’ll need a lot of air pressure to prevent blowing through the travel when my fat butt is aboard.
Have however read not so many nice reports about the Evo in comparison to its posher Factory offering.

Anyone experienced both units?
Will be used mainly for trail riding with occasional bike park days

A volume reduction kit is probably more useful if you are on the bigger side. It’ll change the spring rate by ramping up in the mid to end region of travel. This means you can set your sag as normal and have good compliance in the start of the stroke without blowing through the travel on medium sized hits. Check if they both support this feature first and how easy it is to do it yourself.

A heavier rider will either need a custom tune on a shock like that or a Cane Creek which allows you to do that tuning yourself. Volume spacers will help but they won’t compensate for the lack of compression damping if you’re heavy.