One of the best thing about leather saddles for me is the ability to ride in any sort of clothing. I'm not sure exactly what it is about them, but I'm a lot more comfortable in jeans or non-cycling shorts on leather saddles than I am on typical plastic shell ones.

I'm starting to gain experience with a titanium rail Berthoud Aravis, heck, the weight "penalty" on this is only an ounce or two over a classic road saddle like San Marcos Rolls.

I've had lots of different Brooks', never regretted the weight once - I'm starting to slow down now in my advancing years, but I used to be a lot more concerned about this. The only gripes about Brooks I ever had were:

1) The Brooks Imperial cutout did not agree w/my anatomy

2) The Brooks Conquest sprung saddle always squeaked - I could stop it for a month or two w/various tricks but it always came back pretty quickly. Also, since the springing action tends to stretch the top a bit, the equilibrium point for saddle tightness will always become a shade looser than an unsprung saddle, the top will tend to have a little more sag in springs uncompressed position than an unsprung saddle. If you tighten the top in this position to that of an unsprung saddle, the springing action will inevitably stretch it back to that equilibrium point of a bit of sag. If you are not aware of this, you can be chasing that tight top and prematurely stretch out the leather top.

FWIW, this experience was based upon routinely riding lots of unpaved gravel roads. It may not be as evident riding on smoother pavement, but in that case the springs are sort of redundant anyhow.

Beyond that, I never felt that the springs on mine provided as much shock relief as expected. Overall, I've found riding slightly wider tires at a little lower pressure to be an overall better approach to this issue when necessary. In addition to providing better shock relief to my tush, this also provides the same to the whole bike, diminishing the rattling/fatigue/impact issues for various parts.

A plain old B17 is a great deal and a heck of a saddle.