Tire question;, regarding overall diameter 16" rims Options

[DRPHIL914]

I have had 16" rims for past 2 years and on them I hve the Bridgestone Potenza RE-11.s which are a very wide tire as well,
thing is the 7's are very tight even with some extra work on the wheel wells and the lips modified, I still don't feel safe with new paint etc I don't want to rub and blister the paint, so I am looking at options but also brings up the question of diameter since the 205/55 16 are 25" tall, and speedo is off , so I was going to go down to a 205/50 16, which is closer to stock diameter.

- tires vary with width and this tire is 8.7" wide , so I was thinking a different tire might give me an extra 1/4" or so and I could keep running the RE-11, OR
I just put these tires on my other set of 6" fuchs and I still get over 8" of tread on the ground with no issue of rubbing. BUT I still have the tall tire/wheel combo-

- I see a lot of guys running the 15" rims, and have 205/55 15, which is about the same as a 205/50 16 - is that more correct for proper diameter? I can tell you I already have lower RPM in 5th gear due to having put in a taller gear back when I had smaller wheel and tire combo on the EMPI before going to 5-lug fuchs, so I think the faster RPM with higher gear would be better,

- bottom line is I have a very nice set of RE-11 that have less than 10,000 miles of road wear on them, they are a few years old, great very sticky tires and are not made in this size anymore - I would love to sell them and get enough to go with a good performance tire that might not be quite as wide where I could still run the 7" fuchs, but at the very least change to the 205/50 16 .

I am looking for advice, as I have read LOTS of the other threads here and learned a lot, - what is your experience??
what are the best choice for a softer rated tire that still has good rain/dry performance- we get a lot of rain and as much as you try not to drive in rain its going to happen