i have talked to various shops, about stroking my 7.3
if you have a billet crank made, thats one piece machined unit, then you can stoke to your hearts content, and reliability wont suffer.
the problem starts, with how your goin to stroke it. if your goin to have it cut and welded, like normal, NO SHOP will stand behind it, put in a dd, or used for a dd.
they all agree, its not if it will fail, its when. 1k miles, or 100k miles, who knows.
the benefits arise, because a small build, 60's, fuelers, tow powers, go from upper 600's, or what ever they are, to 7-800's, or whatever it ends up being. you can have high hp, while still maintaining a "safe", relatively low maintenance build. not sacrificing towing, keeping fast spool up.
simply taking the money you would be spending on a "standard" high hp build, and taking the difference in money, and applying it to the bottom end.
ISH. you still need to talk to the builder of your choice, and see if this route is the route for you.