Re: trying padded shorts - I say go for it. Get a good quality pair. I have 3x pairs of Canari padded shorts and they work well for me. I had 1 pair for a few years and washed them between rides. Then I was prepping for a multi-day trip and got 2 more pairs. They changed the model, but they are nearly identical. They work well for me.
The saddle on my big touring bike (Surly Disk Trucker with 700c wheels/56cm frame) is a Brooks Flyer Special. I tried riding the saddle for a few months without padded shorts and tried to let my butt get used to it (braking both the saddle and my butt in). On longer day rides (above about 40mi or so) saddle soreness became a big issue. When I went to padded cycling shorts I tried a few pairs on at a shop that had a good selection and settled on the Canari's. I felt they were on the expensive side, but what was important to me was fit, performance, and quality and I am real happy with how they have turned out - which is why I got 2 more pairs of pretty much the same thing instead of looking elsewhere.
When my butt is in shape I can do day rides as far as I want to go with the shots and saddle alone. Recently I've been doing a few over-night runs 20mi back to back and the first time I did that my butt wasn't in shape so I used chamois cream on day 2. Since then I've been fine without. On multi-day tours I would be applying chamois cream daily.
Everyone is different. Everyone's fitment to any particular saddle is different. And everyone's ability to have their butt get used to any particular saddle is different. So there is no blanket 1 size fits all answer to this. The best thing is to take suggestions and try them yourself.
I agree, in part, with the post earlier that mentioned there is no such thing as a comfortable saddle. Why only "in part" is that doesn't apply to everyone. Some people will fit that category of not finding a "comfortable saddle", others are able to. In my case, the saddle alone on my bike isn't "comfortable" for long. I have only rarely rode it without bike shorts since I started wearing bike shorts. The combination of bike shorts and the saddle, for me, is much more comfortable, but I still get saddle soreness, I assume from abrasion. That is where the chamois cream comes in - it takes that last "edge" off to allow back-to-back days riding.
Padded saddles are good for not needing bike shorts with them. However, where you loose the advantage is if you spend a lot of time in the saddle riding - like if you are doing 40+ miles a day. The reason is, although the padding might seem "more comfortable", it is giving your rear end too much cushion to abrade against. For a short commute in your work clothes that might not matter, but try to do that all day long and you'll hit a wall. That is where harder saddles and good padded bike shorts come in - the abrasion is kept way down as the bike shorts slide pretty easy against the hard saddle, at the same time providing more cushion.