Just to be clear I was speaking for myself. For others, it might vary. I say that because I'm very slightly rev dominant(I believe) and solids tend to lack length for me so they require a little more length/oil than what I intend to use it for. This might be a bad idea seeing as I'm mainly basing it off one ball that seems to be strong for most conditions I come across, it's just been a thought I've had.
As for doing pearls pin down, despite my slight rev dominance, I think I struggle to get them to read the lane properly otherwise. The only pearl I ever liked was drilled pin down. I didn't have any other pin down pearls other than this one so it's hard to say it was because of the layout since it was only one ball. It's possible it was just bad bowler to ball match up as well.
I don't think it's a coincidence either that just about every ball I don't seem to match up to is seemingly too smooth on the backend. Not that they're really smooth, just not a big enough change of direction for me. Not sure if it's just the backend movement alone or the overall read I get out of them but it's interesting that none of them backend like the balls I do like. For what it's worth, the solid mentioned above is not in this group, it just needs enough oil.
Sorry for all the information but I was just trying to fill you in on my thoughts, as well as maybe get some opinions on my problem with pearls.