Never tried the good stuff. The discount stuff I used last was really discount: actually recycled from the girlfriend's bike when she insisted on pink tape over the black it had. Felt like all the other cheap cork tape out there for $7 a set. Worked just fine for my hands, though. Before that, though, I ran shakedowns for about 60 miles with nothing but hockey tape, and still no issues. All my bikes now have essentially the same stuff I hated when I first got drop bars.

What worked for me was padded gloves (again, just a basic set), and perhaps most importantly, core strengthening and playing with handlebar and seat positions to reduce the weight I was trying to support on my hands. And, as others have said, moving hands regularly. I don't stay in any one position more than two or three miles, and generally am moving my hands far more than that.