djb

I know it comes down to what works for the individual, but I certainly need and appreciate a good padded short from the comfort side of things, and my padded bike shorts are alright for heat and air out well--on the last point, since starting to use leather seats, I did find that in hot riding, a non plastic seat did help with the aspect of less trapped perspiration--I relate it to having a plastic bag with a sandwich in a jersey pocket on a hot day, you stay sweaty in that area because of the bag stopping airing out of perspiration.

And while my leather seats fit me really well, I could not ride them day after day without padding, or simply put, I appreciate the comfort that comes from my padded shorts on my sit bones thats for sure. I ride my bikes with normal clothes sometimes, and its fine, but just not for hours and hours and hours and day after day.

and this kind of touches on your last comment too, about riding in hot weather. I clearly remember riding in France when I was using the seamless undies underneath my padded bike shorts, and I was sweaty as all get out in hot weather, and the extra layer didnt help, and they would stay damp much longer than just padded shorts.
And yes, I soon realized it was really better to wash both, not a good idea to reuse the smelly sweated on padded shorts.

Now I realize that there are all kinds of padded shorts, the ones Ive used for many years are high end ones, and breath fairly well in the pad area, and clearly air out well at riding speed. It probably helps that as a slim fellow, I generally dont sweat buckets compared to others, so this helps me I'm sure along with the padded shorts characteristics.