to stroke or not to stroke?

An running engine only makes power (horsepower is the most popular way to rate it). People like to point out that a dyno doesn't measure horsepower but torque. But that's not true a dyno measure torque and at what rpm which we know is horsepower. You can't have one without the other (rpm and torque) there inseparable. Horsepower is the only thing that moves and accelerates your car.

As for the OP stroke or not to stroke depends on many things, cubic inch doesn't directly make power, top end does eg. Carb, heads, intake, headers, cam, bore size etc..
I like to think engine size as a powerband selector.
A bigger engine is gonna make power in a more streetable range. For the most part you want to keep a street engine under 6500 rpm and in the 0.8-1.2 horsepower per cubic inch. If you need more rpm or more hp per cubic inch your gonna needing a larger engine.