I havent driven a tahoe, but I don't like the interior setup for it at all so we had no reason too, though I like the exterior. We have driven both short and Long denalis, both without air suspension. The gms are better built (because they ate newer), but the ride and handling doesn't feel better. The escalade without air does have a better feel in terms of ride though, but also feels more nautical and unwieldly at speed. However both the denali and the escalade were like you said, brakes are calibrated awkwardly, hard to see out of, the interior setup makes no sense, and even compared with the 6.2, also has a weird throttle calibration (im sure this is to allow more smoothness with their 10 speed at low speeds). I could probably live with the firm seats, but not the brakes or adjustable pedals.
My wife hated the wagoneer as soon as she sat in it. Knkwing her, I get why. Outside of the exterior, which she despises, I think the interior is sensory overload for her. Too many settings, multiple screens in different location, button heavy without true buttons, layered menus for displays, and on top of that, a passenger screen without a clear focus on its function, she couldn't hack it. Sure you could learn after purchase, but she couldn't see the value over the nav. I wasn't able to get it on the highway, buy in town ride and feel is great, but the gas mileage is atrocious out of the hemi. I'm glad the hurricane is better but they need to rework the exterior. Shame, because the ram 1500 is still the best looking pickup to me.
The last armada, an 18, didn't have adjustable pedals, but it had a great pedal to seat to wheel set up. Also, nissan didn't miss the assignment on a cushy, quiet family car. Wifey rele loved it. The biggest thing that I didn't like was the third row room. However, it looks like they fixed that with the new qx80, with atleast the same amount of room as the gms. With a panoramic roof, sliding 2nd row seats and maybe an option for massaging front seats for the armada only sweetens the deal, if they keep the price on the lower end of the crazy expensive scale.