From what I have heard, Lavassa's more premium blends can be great on the first day the bag is open. The best of the Italian roasters know their craft well and target their blend and roast to them. One of the challenges is that home baristas don't go through 1-10 kg a day and later days may not be anywhere near as good as the first.

I find that the EPNW 14 ridgeless (doses like an 18) is a reasonably forgiving, "precision" basket. I also concur that the VST baskets can be very challenging to use well, even for an experienced barista.

"Roasting ain't easy" -- going dark well without bringing in too much charred, ashy, or other unpleasant bitterness is a non-trivial thing. I think a quality dark roast is as hard to find on the market as a quality light roast. If anything, finding a dark might be harder, as there are a handful of known and generally good light-roast roasters. Freshness may be more important for darker roasts than the lightest of roasts. Some of the Nordic-style roasters suggest not opening the bag for three weeks or more. Some dark roasts can peak and fade within two weeks. The hypothesis I've heard on this is that the darker roasts break down the cellular structure more, allowing faster exchange of gasses and "stuff" as compared to light roasts.