The best blocks were the later ones (thicker webs and there's an old wife's tale of them having better metallurgy.).
The 452 Heads on those later blocks were some of the best flowing.
The cast crank is good for 500 hp all day long.
Even the cast exhaust manifolds flowed well.
They got a bad name only because the were saddled with low compression and an EPA friendly ignition, cam and induction.
The steel crank was used through 73 and the full conversion to cast cranks was made by the end of 74.
Btw, for some states, the 400 was the official cop engine and had, ironically, a higher hp rating than the 440.
There's a person or three here that get their buttons pushed when they hear "police interceptor" being applied to Mopar cop cars. It doesn't bother me at all.
As far as smartest, everything I learned, I learned from guys in here and guys just like them. I'm basically very dumb but can recall a lot of stuff.