Hi Max,
I started with Halco Roosters and R2S dumbells, and still haven't progressed too far up the money tree for poppers, my current favourites are secondhand Ebi-pops, although I did splash out and buy 3 poppers from fishead.
The R2S make a bit bigger pop than the roosters and casts a bit further, but like you say they do get busted up. I have a range in various stages of destruction (hanging on the wall), but my fav probably caught 8 or 10 fish. Halcos are amazing value for money.
Just a thought on your GT cohort, have you looked in a different environment for a different class of fish? In CQ we seem to have different size classes between coastal headland and Islands, Offshore Islands, and then reef. (with the inshore fish the biggest). Are you driving past big fish to get to smaller fish??? Not sure where you're fishing so may not apply, but GT's definitely have a very wide range of habitats. We have a bloke from South Africa over here who started live baiting straight out the front on one of the swimming beaches on the coast. Before we could all stop laughing at him he has landed 2 GT's over 25kg!!!!