These are interesting discussions, and I'm always interested to see the data that each camp brings out to support their hypothesis, but in the end, I'm pretty agnostic as to which tire has the absolute lowest RR. At least until I have the power-to-weight ratio to be competitive (and assuming I want to compete in something), I'm happy to use a tire that's a size or two too big for the comfort. (Heck, my riding group must not be very competitive if I can hang out at the front with 26x1.75 Paselas. )

I think the OP might be pleasantly surprised if he were to try a set of quality 700x25s. The RR shouldn't go up significantly, and he'd be able to drop his pressures a little without raising his risk of pinch flats.