I have no experience for the gel pad seats, however I've had two seats from Tom Simmons at
www.tscustomseats.com in Fayetteville, AR and they wear like iron and basically need no breaking in at all. I put 80K on one and the fabric looked like new and it rode the same as it did new. It's an actual custom seat he puts you and if you have one backseat rider on then takes several pictures and asks plenty of questions.
He also does a trike specific seat that you can get a Utopia like backrest with it that is a bit wider than the Utopia and the seat itself is a bit higher in the back for the rider. Not cheap but no more expensive that the other manufactures in my book. He will also work with the form he has on his website, but I have no experience with that I just rode it got the order placed he gave me a loaner seat and I was on my way until the seat was finished.
Way I looked at it that was two nice rides to get the new seat. Not sure what city you are talking about but from Crawfordville, or Circleville it's around 600 miles give or take a few.