I’ve felt the same way with Noodler’s a few years ago but I’ve had a Pilot 18k EF inked with bulletproof black for 3+ years now, continuously, and never had a problem other than a hard start. But the pen has set unused for a month or longer so I didn’t blame the ink for the hard starts. I’ve also read the ink is highly saturated and that seems true from what I’ve used. I like them mainly for their bulletproof inks and the eel series works well in some dryer EF nibs I’ve had before I started tuning my nibs myself. I’ve never had Noodler’s clog a pen over time either but I have had some pretty bad ink properties in use on certain colors. Rachmaninoff will not flow well at all. I’ve read you can dilute it with water and that will help but haven’t tried it yet. That’s one thing you can do with Noodler’s inks and not loose any color people say since they are so highly saturated.
The Iroshizuku inks can’t be beat imho. Plus I like the bottle. 
Some of their inks have as much sheen as the J. Herbin 1670’s and others. I have noticed nothing settle’s at the bottom of the bottle in the Iroshizuku nor do they say to shake the bottle up before use so the sheen stays suspended in the ink.
For a piston filler, I too love the TWSBI 580’s! This pen always starts with good ink even after a month sitting cap up on my desk. Writes smooth and effortlessly and holds a lot of ink. Thought of trying the discontinued TWSBI Vac700 for a vacuum filler since it’s a larger pen.
The Noodler’s Konrad is a piston filler but I like the Ahab better personally for it’s size and ease of use.
Nice picture BIG NIC!
Still haven’t tried the new Diamine Shimmer but Brandy Dazzle looked good to me along with the blue with the silver sheen.
On a whole other writing instrument, I finally tried the Blackwing pencil. Nice pencils!