provided they are installed with no spacer, and they have 1 inch of air space between the stop and the rubber spring, then timbrens have no effect on unloaded height nor ride.

when you load up the truck, it squats the iniitial 1 inch and makes contact with the rubber spring. then it acts as a helper spring.

i initially installed the 1 inch spacer, so the truck sat on the timbren when unloaded. it did level out my drivers side lean, but it was too stiff.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...installed.html

 

Add a leafs stiffen up the ride a lot.
Lift blocks won't change the ride bounce wise, you'll just get the sail effect more when there is a cross wind on the road.

Shocks are really stiff right out of the box and soften up a little over time. You say that you can push them down easily, but what if you give them a quick jar? They should give a fair bit of resistance when you push them down quickly.