i think the td04 isnt laggy at all, with a decent ext gate setup you'll have 0.5 bar by 3000 and full boost(1.4) by 3800 or so. in bang for buck terms it cant be beat. just because everyones done it dont discount it.
k24's are meant to be awesome but are quite rare, you dont see them for sale often hence the high price tag
The best turbo to fit your requirements would be a K24 I'd say, smaller than TD04, quicker spool up