Just chiming in: Seat comfort is my Number One issue. Nothing is more important (to me), and I just shake my head when I hear people say they bought a car that has uncomfortable seats. Seems like you should be able to figure that out relatively easily during a test drive. In the end, though, I expect that this has a lot to do with your height, probably moreso than anything else. I'm on the short end, 5-foot-5 inches and shrinking, as I get older. "Noooooooooo!!" Anyway. I have had good seats and bad seats. Toyota seats have usually been fine, but I've had a couple that got irritating over time. I always go to the big car show and the main thing I do is sit in cars that I have an interest in. There are some truly horrifying seats out there.
I'm absolutely very happy and satisfied with the seats in my Limited AWD. WIth Softex. I understand "short seat cushions," but I don't consider mine to be anywhere near that category. Avalons have usually had that, for some odd reason. But I'm more than happy with mine. The way you sit in a seat may have a lot to do with it, too -- I have always tended to keep my seat as low as it will go, probably leaning back a bit more than a lot of people do, and driving mostly with my hands on the lower half of the steering wheel. Before this, I had a 2015 Corolla S Premium, also with Softex, and at this point I like Softex better than anything else I've ever owned. I utterly wouldn't take leather over it. If it might make any difference, I have the "only heated" seats -- I seem to have managed just fine over the past 50 years without ventilation, but I'm in cold, rainy Oregon, and I love the toasty, warm, two-setting heated seats. When I read about how the ventilated ones didn't seem to be nearly as warm, I was very glad that I didn't get that option.
Anyway, before the 2015 Corolla I had a 2008 Camry SE V6, and the seats in the 2015 Corolla were very similar -- not exactly the same, but very, very close. So close I wouldn't have been able to say that "this is different than that." I liked both, and I especially liked the big side bolsters that held me in place. The Limited seats aren't too far away from those two seats, but it's definitely a more upright seating position, with a bit less bolstering. Which is what I wanted -- as I get older (63 years as I write this), the bolstering in the sporty seats was starting to push on my thighs, which arthritis and other body aches and pains didn't like over time. In the end, the transition to the Limited seat was very easy, and very natural.
Being a senior citizen, I am retired, and I am definitely doing the "get in your car and drive somewhere" routine in retirement, so I'm putting plenty of hours in that seat. I have accumulated a few different seat cushions and such for cars back in the past that weren't so comfortable, but all of those have remained buried in the garage while I've had the past few cars. At any rate, I'm coming close to a year driving my Limited (purchased in mid-February of last year), and I've been more than happy with the seat, every minute I've been in the car.
In the end, it took a few years to comprehend how important seat comfort was to me, but over the past couple of decades I've learned what works for me and what doesn't, and I continue to go to the auto shows and sit in lots of cars. And I was completely prepared to judge how well I liked the Limited seat when I took my first test drive. I thought it was just fine during that test drive, and I've been happy ever since.
