Stock 360 deck height

This is actually normal. Deck heights vary and mostly come in taller than listed. This also pushes the piston down into the hole farther. My last all stock 360 came in @ 7.7-1. My 400 came in @ 7.8-1.

In your rebuilding effort, you can ethier;

Mill the deck and /or heads for more compresion

or

Get new slugs like the KB-107 or the Speed Pro/Fed-Mougal slugs for the 360. Though, they were designed with the idea of being a zero deck slug for 9.8-1 ratio w/open 72 cc heads, the taller deck height and possible extra amount of head cc's along with a thicker head gasket can drop this ratio real good and even down passed 9.5-1 easy.

Really, a 9.0-1 ratio is all you'll need for the street. The rest is cam timing, head flow for power, followed by gear ratio and converter for torque/power release.