I have narrowed a tower speaker selection down to a pair of wet sounds rev 8 v a pair of exile xm9.
Both are 8" HLCD speakers. Unless there has been a revision, the xm9 only has a 1.5" voice coil compression driver compared to the Rev-8 2.0" voice coil. This equals more power handling deeper mid-bass extension. Although the xm9 pods looks large, the internal volume is pretty close to the Rev-8

The Rev-8 offers 3 clamping options, direct, fixed clamp and swivel. The TC3-S swivel allows for not only the speaker leads to be concealed in the collar, but also 4 smaller leads for the optional LEDs. They use a male and female terminal, so there is a positive connection between all the leads, even as the pod is swiveled. The exile method uses an old style head-phone jack. This has a plated male post contacting a thin spring tab inside the collar. These are prone to wear spots, resulting in poor contact.

It seems exile is very popular on the forum for customer service
No disputing there are plenty of exile issues that pop up here, and then get taken care of. What you dont see, are thousands of satisfied Wet Sounds customers that have purchased through their local dealers. This gives the consumer a number of advantages over having to deal through the internet. You get to demo the product prior to purchase. You get local on sight support such as system design, installation and tuning. If an issue arises later, they will also work with you to resolve it. You also get full factory support.

I really like the wet sound ws 420 with ability to talk over the tower speaker, but exile doesn't seem to have that or did I over look that?
Heres another huge difference between the WS-420SQ and the zld.

The 420 is a dual EQ in a single chassis, where as the zld is a single EQ. The WS-420 allows you to tune the tower speakers independently of the in-boat speakers and visa verse. With the zld, what ever EQ adjustments you make to one zone, you are also making to the other zone. Compare that alone considering the two units are the same retail price.

Also how well does the gear as mix of brands.
Electrically, there are no issues amps, speakers and subs can all live in harmony.