I like using hydraulic rollers for street/strip engines. I’ve never had a problem with the Hughes hyd rollers and the Hughes hyd lifters. It’s around 800 - 1000 bucks more to go roller but much better than pulling your engine apart to fix a flattened lobe on a flat tappet cam.
No 2 ways that a roller will make more power (usually). Unfortunately, flat tappet cams get a bad rap when there is a flat tappet failure when it is often not the cam / lifters fault. If you are in to a mild to moderate street/strip build (OP), flat tappet stuff works great for a lot less $. Built many in the .600+ lift range with no problems. Maybe I'm just lucky.
