Hey folks,

I’m replacing windows in my house that has a view of the water. Most of my existing windows are double pane integrated glass units, older aluminum units, or builder grade vinyl non-LoE windows.

I’m trying to replace them and maximize my view, but I’d like to make them operable to get some of nice natural air conditioning off the water (and update them with modern sun coatings to manage solar heat gain).

Most of my windows will be single hung tall 44 x 72” windows with tempered operable lowers at 24” sill. I don’t want to spend a considerable amount more to jump to fiberglass. Even sight lines are NOT a priority, and as you’ll see below I may even prefer.

I’ve been torn looking at the following options (in order of where I’m currently leaning):
1) Milgard StyleLine: basic windows, with uneven sight lines. No glass breakage warranty (except ironically it looks like Home Depot still offers this). Main selling point is lower cost, reasonably same energy efficiency, and most importantly thin frame and can take advantage of uneven sight lines for maximum glass in the window uppers to preserve view.
2) Milgard Trinsic: basically the upgraded StyleLine with even sigh lines and glass breakage as far as I can tell. Issue is I haven’t seen one of these in practice to compare frame thickness and particularly amount of glass lost to get even sight lines.
3) Simonton DaylightMax: as far as I can tell this is basically the window Milgard Trinsic was designed to compete with. Never seen this one in person either.

Main questions:
1) I want to take advantage of uneven sight lines. But I regret this/will my windows look cheap?
2) Are there quality of long term usability concerns with any of these? I know the latter two have slicker lock, but in my usage I prefer the non-auto lock because the auto-locks leave black smudge marks.
3) I’m terms of coating, I’m planning to do SunCoatMax with argon, no 4th surface. I saw a couple threads on 4th surface suggesting may be unnecessary for my region, plus somebody said prone to scratches (which I wasn’t sure about but I do have you kids...)

NB: I live in Bellevue, WA. I get a lot of light reflection off water, and off water breezes.