When you say beter built hulls, did you mean just the hull, or the whole boat?
Just plain construction and design of the hulls isnt going to vary a lot between many if just talking hull.
The devil might be in the details for some, not the general construction.
I can't explain it very well.
When I'm on my boat, even though its 51 years old, it FEELS solid. It feels heavy. I mean the other day I was installing exterior speakers, and hit a board inside the gunnel area, and it broke my blade. Turns out it was 6 inch wide, 3 inch thick solid mahogany. And when I installed my AC last week, I had to cut a hole in the dinette seat for the return grill, and even the dinette seat was a full INCH thick plywood. The stringers in this boat are like 4 inch wide by 6 inch thick mahogany beams covered in inch thick fiberglass.
For comparison, two weeks ago when we went to look at the 1979 Chris Craft Corinthian (which was built after Chris Craft was sold to new owners) it felt very "light". Closet doors were thin and covered in that awful 1970's depression colored Formica. The engine hatch covers felt like trampolines. Small kitchen compartments were that fake plastic that looks kinda like wood grain, and kinda like soot from an over sized flame. It was also very dark and cavernous.
I'm a huge fan of Taiwanese style boats. I've always liked all the wood interiors, and warm feeling of the boats that I've been on, both sail, and trawler. They usually always feel pretty heavy and solid - although most of the Marine Trader's that I've been on always felt leaky and soft, usually having some sort of soft deck, or wood rot below the windows.
So I guess, what are some other Marine Trader-ish trawlers? That style and era?