sticking or floating valves

The bent pushrods would definitely have me wondering. They're usually not the first thing to go, bent pushrods usually mean bent or stuck valves.

But, if it really does run fine as long as you're not "punching it" and the compression numbers are good, I'd say that its either a carb tuning problem or an ignition issue (just because its new doesn't mean its working right).

What size cam? What size carb?

Even Edelbrocks aren't perfect out of the box, you typically have to adjust something. If it runs fine the rest of the time, but bogs on acceleration, check out the step-up springs and see what's in there. You may also have to change the size of the step on the primary rods.

As far as the sparkplugs, there's really only a couple of possibilities. Either you got a bad batch, or you're detonating. I've actually had a batch of spark plugs (all out of the same box) where the ceramic broke on several plugs during installation to the specified torques, just some kind of manufacturing flaw. But if the electrodes are bent and they weren't that way during the install, you could be having detonation issues too. Which would actually go right along with a carb tuning problem.