ATK is an alright outfit for their market niche, you know you're not paying for or getting custom performance machining up front. there won't be any hard feelings like some guys have after paying several times that much and not realizing the quality level they aimed for. ATK engines run every day, their product should not disappoint. it is too bad they don't have a more knowledgeable salesman. IIRC ATK does mild performance builds as well but i'd skip that and just have a long block minus cam, lifters and pushrods delivered
from what i hear Cleveland cores are very hard to come by in that region. did Bob offer the possibility of finding your own core and sending it to them? i'd get someone other than Bob on the phone and see if you can arrange a build bored no more over than necessary with a .030" limit