Originally Posted by Road Fan

In terms of finding "level" I agree the shape of the saddle is irrelevant, because I think the concept of "level" is irrelevant. What IS important is whether your sit bones will stay at the part of the saddle designed to accommodate them (usually the widest area), and whether the lighter but still significant pressure in front of that is low enough.

Your bones and their position need to be stable with no more than light hand pressure on the bars or hoods - this makes for a sustainable riding position. . If your butt position is steady because you are always pushing back with your hands, that's not sustainable.

In case of pain in front of the sitbones, which can happen with or without a saddle cutout or a depression in the middle, the obvious measure is to lower the nose bit by bit until it is no longer painful. But this can also tend to make you slide forward, which isn't good. In this case I don't drop the nose, rather I lower the saddle bit by bit. It doesn't take much to relieve this frontal pressure and it doesn't affect the sitbone pressure. My leg extension is reduced a little bit, but I pedal with flexible ankles, so it usually doesn't matter a lot. If it does I can slide the saddle backwards a small amount to restore the leg extension.

This all assumes you have