All three of my dogs have a Paco collar each. Actually, Dance has two. I really like them, and most of all, I love their customer service. They are amazing to deal with. I waited for a sale to get my collars, as paying full price plus shipping to here is insane. But with a sale, it wasn't too bad at all. Still expensive, but the collars hold up really well and are very nice. They're
much nicer than the plain leather collars we used to buy for our dogs back when we didn't do online purchasing. I don't like anything too fancied up, so I went with simpler designs (well, more simple than some of their designs). I'd get tired of a totally plain leather collar, but I didn't want too much design either. And they all got a deluxe simply because somehow they manage to look thinner on the dog, and I didn't want too much hardware rubbing on their necks either. Ripley got a Pickles Deluxe (brown/brass), Keira got a Kylee Deluxe (black/brass, tapered to 3/4" at the buckle) and Dance got a Swirl Deluxe (tan/brass, tapered to 3/4" at the buckle) and a custom 3/4" one also a couple years before. I put some thought into it, but not too much. I had extra money at the time, and wanted all three of them to have a pretty, quality collar. And so I decided to go with Paco. And I went with Paco because the collars looked less bulky to me than some other companies (I liked the hardware better), I'd already had one for Keira and Dance that I knew I liked, and like I said, I've never dealt with a nicer company. Ripley and Dance also have two collarmania collars from when they were still making leather collars. They're nice as well, but different, and the particular ones I got don't look like they'd hold up as well in water and such without looking too worn eventually. And my Paco collars are softer. A couple of conditionings, a week of wear, and they were comfortably soft.
As far as scratching, it's been my experience that all leather collars will scratch and there isn't much that can be done about it unfortunately. Conditioning helps, but there will always be some scratch marks.
I'd never heard of these Whiplash collars you're all mentioning before today I don't think, but they sound really nice!
ETA: Here are my guys' collars:
I love the pumpkin leather on Quinn but the cognac is so thick and supple and just good quality, it's wonderful. I can't believe how great it feels for only being cleaned/conditioned once and it hasn't even been worn enough to really be broken in (Quinn only wears it out and about). 
