I don't know about longer life.
I use the EBC Kevlar pads. They are quiet, apparently very easy on rotors, have good initial bite, work better then the OEM pads in the wet and are cheap. Did I mention they are quiet?
I would avoid any type of sintered pad unless you intend to road race the thing. They work very well, but only if kept up to temperature which is hard to do on a touring (or even street ridden) bike.
One of the reasons the pad life is shorter with the new design is that the friction material thickness even on new pads is very small, less then half of the pre 00 brake pads.
People are used to look at the old pads. One tends to believe the new style pads are worn until one sees the replacement parts.