Funny you mention Tama as only being a metal drum in your mind, when in all actuality, their first huge endorsers were Billy Cobham, the drummers of Earth, Wind, and Fire, and a few years later, Stewart Copeland! Elvin Jones played Tama before he went to Yamaha, and this was maybe 20 years ago before Peter Erskine went to Tama.
And I agree, your perception of Pearl is unfortunate, because they really do make nice drums. But I also agree I see so many badly tuned Exports out there that it's a bit of a turn off. Pearl makes so many different kinds of drums, that you would never see all of them in a store to make any comparisons, it's a shame. I did talk about that with their USA president at NAMM the other year and he said they are working on that image, and I think over time they will get there. It's hard to turn your back on the literally millions of Export drums they've sold since 1981!
And Gretsch is not just a jazz drum. Taylor Hawkins and Hannah Ford are big pop/rock artists, and even back in the day, lots of rock n roll was being played on Gretsch too.
My take on your question though is more about attitudes than styles. Although I just got back into a DW kit, Drum Workshop reminds me very much of Apple. Don't you just like how Apple comes out with new products and they automatically sell because they have enough sheep to buy into their products? Sometimes I feel DW does the same thing. If DW feels your floor toms should only be 13" deep, or that you won't get a better sound without using a tree that sank to the bottom of the Potomac 900 years ago, then by golly, that's what you're gonna get, and you will like it. You will spend more money for the privilege too!
Don't get me wrong, DW probably does a lot of research and development and much of what they do could even be correct, but there's always this feeling in the back of my head that I'm being fed a line - just like I feel whenever I have to buy more Apple products
But as of today, I really like these used DW's I've found, and the construction is really done well. But there's always that itch in the back of my brain.....