I like the 1200cal rations better than 3600s for one simple reason- if you wear a hole in the wrapper of one of three 1200s, you are out 1200 calories, but the other two are fine. Wear a hole in the one 3600's wrapper, and you are potentially hosed. And since I do one 1200 per day, it makes it easy to portion out. *shrugs* YMMV.

As for going with a loft based sleeping bag rather than something like the Thermo-lite, there are pluses and minuses. Plus side, it will be warmer probably, due to the loft. Minus side is, if you leave it packed in your rig all the time, the loft gets compressed. Even if it can be refluffed, it won't be quite the same, at least not for a while. The Thermolite, so long as it doesn't have a hole (duct tape to the rescue) it will work, no long how long it has been packed. No loft issues.

And myself and others aren't saying the bag is horrible. We we are saying is it can be a lot better for not a huge amount more if you roam ebay and the like.