I have a Spoon and a Gobi both of which normally come up in comfortable saddle conversations.
However after about 3.5 hrs either one has me with a sore arse and that’s with padded shorts, so +1 to padding.
IMO you’re not going to get any comfort without them
I’ve had K18’s, RX’s and now R1X’s, awesome.
As has been said can be a pig to setup without drag but current setup only drags on the rear and who uses the rear brake anyway……?