I try and always harken back to some very good advice I was once heard (I cant credit it who it was as I dont remember) and that is - ignore the hype of new papers. Pick two or three papers you really like (regardless of what others think) and then get really good at printing with them.
If one is forever changing papers its impossible to get really good at printing with 'a' particular paper. If on the other hand... that is all you print on then one learns all the subtleties of the paper and how to coax the best from it.
So.. I say.. if you have a luster paper you are fond of - print on it and enjoy it and dont feel down for a moment if you are not printing on a more expensive Baryta paper.
Josh, this is the best advice I've seen... I often say the same, and this goes back to my darkroom days, and paper, as well as film. I kept seeing a new emulsion come out and get touted as the hot setup by all the photo mags. Now, I understand that's what moves the industry, but I never left my Tri-X/D76, Dektol and Ilford routine, simply because I knew how to get the best print from that combination.
Coming from a strong printmaking (in the Graphic Arts sense- etching, litho, serigraph, like that) background as well, I had a long run with watercolor papers until Bill Atkinson made a comment to me- once a print is under glass, the material is really not apparent anymore... so why would you print an image that needs a huge gamut on a lesser-gamut watercolor media? Why indeed...
All that said, I do feel that inkjet printing gives you a unique opportunity to experiment with different types of surfaces, and you're missing something very important if you don't take advantage of that. It's a huge departure for me, and largely a result with a
piece I wrote on Bruce Keyes, who experiments with surfaces and types of media relentlessly... when I asked him how he felt about the old-school Zone-inspired methods of visualization, limiting your methods and all that stuff, he said "I don't see the point of saddling my students with all that outdated BS!"
So my horizons are a little more open than they used to be, but still, I think you have to use the right tool for the job, and to do that, you have to know your tools... and you can only do that by following my Grandpappy's advice: "...make print after print after print after print. THEN you'll learn how to make a print!"