Implementation of the design is also a critical factor. Recently a guy at work gave me an old mid 90's mountain bike. Like my Panasonic, it has canti brakes. Both have standard Shimano pads. The difference is amazing. Why? The Panasonic has the traditional hanger attached by the headset locknut. When you apply the front brake it flexes giving the brakes a spongy feel. The Mountain bike has a CNC machine aluminum brake bridge attached to the fort and the brake cable mounts there. Flex is virtually non-existant. It feels so much better - absolutely solid like it could throw you over the handlebars. The Panasonic's brakes feel ok but similar to the centerpulls on my other vintage bikes and the single pivot sidepull on my fixie. For comparison, the dual-pivot sidepulls on my Bianchi could throw you right over the bars too.

I've got a pair of Weinmann centerpulls with Weinmann levers on my bike. The levers have a quick-release built into them, which allows the pads to be set quite close to the rim. The only limiting factor in closeness would be if the rims were out of true a bit. With the quick-releases open, my 700x28 tires drop right out with room to spare. I haven't tried it with 700x32, but it looks like they might clear the brakes. Obviously there's a limit somewhere.