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I’ve got Ultegra calipers of uncertain but significant vintage, and Ultegra levers from approximately.. 2008-9 ish..? And they are poor.
My summer road bike is 2008 Ultegra and the brakes are still excellent, in the dry on a par with discs, in the wet still pretty good. Wheels are Zipp 404s with the Al braking surface. I'm still using the original stock pads (the bike did spend 10 years barely ridden), so is only 1-2 years old in terms of actual use.
I stripped the calipers down (bit of a palaver that was), fitted new Shimano pads, probably set them up a bit better and cleaned the rims.
They are quite a bit better now but my feeling is it's probably the pads. Still nowhere near discs obviously but much improved. Will have to see how they are on a proper ride.
I opted not to use grease on the calipers. It would have gunked up before long, so I'm using light PTFE lube and it'll have to be reapplied.
FWIW when I was running cheap-ass tektro calipers (OE) on my old road bike bike I used ultegra pads for a bit because they were cheap. I later found BBB roadstop to be an excellent improvement and didn't pick up as much rim-damaging grit/sand etc.
Obviously not going to be as good as salmon kool stops but way way cheaper.
After nearly having an incident coming down Newlands Pass I swapped to Swisstop pads and they were night and day better.
Agreed that shimano stock pads are rubbish and big improvements to be had from swiss stop or salmon kool pads. Also use that small screw adjuster to ensure both pads contact the rim at the same time.