Handling without front swaybar?

I think the shocks and tires will make more of a difference driving on rough unpaved roads. I take my 1993 Jeep Cherokee off-roading every now and then and before heading to the trails I remove the front sway bar so the front axle can fully articulate when going over rocks and such. However what really smooths out the ride is airing down my tires; typically I drive around with 44/40 psi front/rear but off-road I go down to 25 or less. I have gone off-roading with the front sway bar still hooked up and while the ride wasn't much different it had much less flex in the front.

Overall if you leave the rest of your suspension the same and just add a front sway bar I think you will barely notice any difference in ride quality on unpaved roads. Changing to lower-profile tires will make the biggest difference in ride feel followed by shocks then springs (torsion bars). FWIW I went to 1" t-bars on my '70 Duster and noticed almost no difference in ride quality compared to stock springs and I'm still running no sway bars. It handles OK but the body lean is too much when you really push it in a hard corner and the fat 60-series tires on 15" wheels doesn't help.

I would be more careful about selecting the shocks, wheels and tires than whether or not to get a front sway bar. You need it in a car, in fact you need it on BOTH ends if you're running modern tires that grip worth a darn.