Well that thread got busy in a hurry, just some general points.
1. Standard bred birds will generally do lay longer and produce more eggs over a lifetime (regardless of the finite number of eggs thing) because they have the larger bodies and normal growth rates that the laying process is not as much of a strain on the anatomy of a bird. I have never had an issue of prolapse of eggbound or any other laying related health issue since I ditched my last hatchery birds almost 20 years ago.
2. I would not judge standard bred birds based on difficulties experienced by "breeders" here on BYC. Issues such as laying and fertility are often a line by line and breeder by breeder situation. It is very rare someone that knows what they're doing breeds themselves into a corner, standard bred or not.
3. All birds and breeds have their purpose, but if meat is truly part of one of your goals, you won't get much off a commercially bred "dual purpose" fowl. Not when the breeds are half the size they should be which means half the meat they should have. Of course this is also part of wise breed selection. A hatchery Jersey Giant for instance might weigh in at 7 lbs, and that's plenty of meat for many so they serve that purpose just as well as the 13 lb birds called for by the standard. Of course you could also raise a standard bred Catalana, or Andalusian, or similar breed and get equal meat production and egg production if not better compared to the hatchery bird, while also helping maintain the rich poultry history.
4. No matter what type of stock you start with, hatchery or standard bred, if you do not know how to select for production qualities in your birds, and how to manage them properly, you will either never have good results, or you will lose the good results that are there.
5. Really stressing without proper management and nutrition you will not see the productive results you could. So many are fixated on replicating what the birds did 100+ years ago. WHY? Would you want a car that has the capabilities of 100 years ago? With modern nutrition and breeding practices even our standard bred birds should be able to leave the old timers and their birds in the DUST. The poultry world is so resistant to change it's almost frightening. There is zero reason for it.
Now my own tangent that came to mind while writing this post, nutrition. We need to realize two things, three actually. First, nutrition knowledge has advanced since the early 1900's. Second, what is produced commercially feed wise is the bare minimum for highly specialized commercial birds of today, vegetarian diets made of cheap ingredients. Third, you are not doing any favors following some thrown together recipe or supplement program some amateur has thrown together on the internet. Or basing our feeding program on what some farmer did in 1900. Balancing a diet is no joke and when not done properly can have a severe negative impact. Nutrient balance, both micro and macro, amino acid balance are all critically important to really push our birds to what they do. If you don't have the resources to find a true nutritionist (not a hobby nutritionist, see the degree) to help formulate a diet, try using gamebird feed for standard bred birds, it's far closer to the needs of our real birds than the stuff that is made with the drastically different commercial birds in mind, and don't mess with it by throwing in a bunch of odd stuff. That's fine for sustaining birds and all, but to really push production? Not so much.
I'll get off my little soapbox here. Hopefully the first 5 points are helpful and result in some good further discussion.
