in too deep: trying to go BBP on a 68 barracuda and its going.. poorly.

... While those are all good habits to have they do not guarantee that someone without good driving habits won't do something stupid and put you in a situation where you'd need better than 10" drums. Just takes one dipstick to cut you off and slam on the brakes, and if they're in something made in the last decade or two you've got no shot at stopping short with factory drums.

Sounds like you've been very fortunate for a very long time, which is great. But 10" brakes are not at all great by todays standards, and there are simple upgrades that can dramatically improve your stopping distances. Even just the factory disk brakes can improve stopping distances substantially, you don't need to go full pro touring to stop much better than you can with 10" drums all the way 'round. Now granted that will still put you at a disadvantage against a modern car, but if you knock a car length off your stopping distance that just might be a car you don't hit.

You absolutely can use good 10" drum brakes all around and have a safe car, "todays standards" are not that much better in day to day driving. I drove 1 hour minimum every day in Baltimore, MD rush hour traffic, every day for 25 years. I don't need the supposed superlative in everything for these cars. You guys can chase the latest and greatest in everything, but it is not required to have a safe fun car. Not sure what you call dramatic, I have not noticed huge gains in stopping from 10" drums to 73 up discs. The only vehicle I have driven with scary brakes was a 69 Chevy Pickup that simply took forever to stop at any speed.