Well, I think I'm gonna do a bulk order of half Surefires and half Panasonics from Battery Junction and monitor the differences. The Panasonics are a bit cheaper than the Surefires. Regarding price, Duracells are $2.25/ea, while Surefires are $1.75/ea and Panasonics are $1.45/ea. I'm curious why the Duracells are so much more expensive.
On the rechargeables, comments noted, and I learned that the device I was looking at running them on (it sucks CR123s like there's no tomorrow) will run off a USB C power bank, so I'm going to get a small one of those that I can velcro on it and give that a try.