Through years of coaching, the thing I noting most is that bowlers don't keep the ball in front of them and on line consistent enough to see the benefit in using urethane. People think they're throwing it like Chris Barnes in position round of the US Open, but after years of bowling on the house shot they develop a bit of a belly in their ball path. Just look at how many guys say they're playing "right up 10" and in reality its about 14-7 at the breakpoint. The ball going through the heads is so quick that our brain gets tunnel vision to the pins and it's we aren't correctly processing where our ball is going.
The true benefit of using Urethane comes in the ability to get the ball down the lane in a straight line to the target. The slow response time lets you camp out in one spot until you can get the corners out and misses inside are a money shot everytime.
As far as a "proven urethane" I don't think anyone can go wrong with a Pitch Black or Purple Pearl Urethane. The Hot Cell and Black Widow both flare 2-3 times as much as the aforementioned and it's going to start arcing in the midlane a lot sooner. That's not beneficial on a house shot or an easier pattern, especially if you can't feed the ball in a straight line to the "spot". The Pitch series and Urethane Hammers stay much straighter through the heads and midlane before making that soft urethane arc motion. The BTU's from Brunswick both go much longer and act much like the early weak resin balls like the Blue Hot/Red Hot flames.
Agree 100% with this summation.
I use a True Motion at 1000 grit with a Pin in Axis drilling.
The ball will not flare at all and has zero backend.
I can stand right and ease it up 7 all night on a house shot.
Misses inside will hold and strike.
Like you said, I can camp out and wait for the shot to break down and then those corners will be gotten out every time.
Usually I just have to inch my foot left if the ball starts to creep high.
That's how you play urethane, straight at the pocket, nice and slow so it gets into a strong roll, hit high flush, carry, rinse and repeat for the whole set.
I was thinking of getting one of the stronger balls, maybe one of the Asyms and then put an Axis drill on it.
This would take the flare away, but the bonus to this layout on a ball like that is I get a super low RG for very early heavy roll and a stronger coverstock to combat higher volumes when playing from the outside.