I'm not an expert, but for what it's worth, I've done quite a bit of reading of older threads on this forum to gather info on the right mid-range top water rod to get, and there seems to be a clear distinction between rods suitable for poppers (stiffer tips), and rods suitable for stick baits (softer tips).

And the overwhelming advice is that NZ kingies go for stick baits more than poppers (versus the opposite in the tropics). If you think you're going to focus on poppers, cool. But if you think you're likely to want to stick bait, make sure you don't end up with a stiff rod that won't work stick baits effectively.

Then it comes down to the lure weights and line weights you're going to use.

But judging from a lot of the older threads, there's a big fan base for the Offshore top water rods, and as an owner of one of the Illusion soft bait rods can vouch for the quality. However, you'll find quite a bit of discussion about the accuracy of the lure weight range quoted by the makers on the top water rods, and in a couple of cases, even the length (which seems odd, not hard to measure a rod blank!).

The lighter of the two Offshore rods seems favoured for stick baits.

There's an Okuma Metaloid top water rod coming out here too, which might be worth looking at?