I'm glad those pads worked well for you too. I've got another Mad4Brakes order en route - I figured if the carbon/ceramic pads worked so well, I'd try out a few other Brembos too.
Yes, the caliper pins are critical, especially on Zeros. I've been lucky with my Nissin fronts - both came well greased, and still move freely. Not my J Juan rear calipers, though; one 25mm is OK, but the other 25mm - and the new 30mm I installed recently - both had sticking & galling pins. I figured the clear grease in the new 30mm must be OK - hey, it's brand new! - so I left it in, but it started scraping & seizing up after 2 days of light use. It's not a huge deal to pull the wheel off and re-grease it, but I feel like such a fool to have trusted J Juan not to use crap grease despite knowing full well what a half-assed outfit they are.
Ray