I think cushioning, though, is a far more tailored personal preference....yeah we want cushioning BUT the amount of it differs greatly from person to person (yeah I know you could probably argue the same for tackiness ). For example I like some cusioning BUT not too much....I like a good feel for the ball yet I know a lot of keepers love a much more highly padded glove.
Some of us on here are old enough to be playing when there was no gloves, or at very least were not common. So what did we use for cushioning then?
I wear gloves for grip and feel of the ball. If your catching technique is correct, then you will be cushioning the ball properly. That should be all that is required even with hard shots I used to prefer the thinnest palm I could find. On some it was as little as 1mm but I haven't seen a glove like that for a very very long time.
I also want the grip to be consistently good. A reason why I'm a huge fan of the Sells supersoft, Ad Plus, etc I've used some of the "tacky" gloves in past like Mega, etc which were great for a short period of time, but not over the long haul.
I prefer grip over cushion, although I do I like to have some cushion. For me the catching process is not as "clean" if the palm is too thick. Lets face it, it's a football we are catching...not a high speed anvil
Im with those sittin bang on the middle of the road on this one. A top drawer glove should have a combination of good grip and cushioning.