I'm most definitely in the "anything goes" camp; I have a cabinet full of creams, 'croaps', and soaps, and seem to find new ones to try all the time! I enjoy experimenting as well as the different scents, and really haven't found any that don't work.
I have only two brushes... a boar and a best badger... and I switch back and forth based solely I'm how I feel that day, not on which lather product I'll be using. I find that I can get what I consider to be good lather no matter what products I employ. Sure, I have to use different techniques, but that's part of the fun!