I started flying my Dad's RV-8 about 6-7 years ago, and was surprised by it's short field performance. With it's Hershey bar wing (no float) and constant speed prop I could land it shorter than my stock PA-12 (no flaps, lotsa float). With it's IO-390, getting out was...ahem...not a problem. It's no Valdez competitor, and probably not good on rough stuff, but I would be comfortable operating it out of some pretty short strips.
I eventually traded the PA-12 for a Cessna 170 with a 180hp/constant speed conversion. This is very nearly the perfect plane for my family (wife + 2 small kids). Good STOL performance for the short grass strips we frequent locally. Can put it on skies or bush wheels if I so desired. Will haul us all reasonably comfortably. With the high wing and 2 big doors it's easy to load the kids, and great for rides. Visibility for all is excellent. And it really flies nice. Pick on Cessna all you want, but it's light on the controls and responsive. Plus it's all metal. After losing money on my PA-12 because the perfectly good fabric happened to be 30 years old, its nice not having a "time life" item on my expensive investment.
While my 170 is great, there is room for improvement. It needs another 10 gallons of fuel, and a commensurate bump in useful load. A few more inches of cabin width wouldn't hurt either. Finally, it needs more speed. It doesn't need to be as fast as our RV8, but somewhere between the 2 would be nice. I'm sure some of you are screaming "Cessna 180!", and that's probably where I'll end up someday, but for now I really like the economy of my 170. 8gph, and only 4 cylinders to maintain at annual time.
Sooo...all that being said if I could waive Van's magic wand I'd conjure up something like a high wing RV-10. I would bet I could get very nearly the same STOL performance, all the utility and flexibility of the 170/180 (easy to load, skies, floats, bush wheels, etc...) a lot more speed, more room, more range, and more useful load. All metal so it would last forever, and I could set it up for IFR. Finally, building it would be fun! So that's my vote....a high wing, taildragger RV10.
As for Van's version of Super Cub, not sure what there is to be gained here. There are a bunch of 2 place, high wing, STOL planes on the market with a variety of sizes, speeds, capabilities, and budgets. If I were a kit manufacturer, I'd think twice about entering that fray.
DEM