Can Rollback Damage Front End

This dates back to pre-ABS, pre-stability-control days. When tire traction is mismatched, the better tires stop shorter, while the thinner tread tires skid farther. If the slipperier tires are in back, that means (absent a perfect undisturbed straight-line panic stop, which is not the norm) the rear tires will slide ahead of the front. I.e. the front and rear swap ends. For most drivers of typical skill, this is an uncontrollable condition. Plus, the car has less crash protection on the sides and rear than the front, so the shift away from nose-first orientation will increase the occupant risk even if the car collides at a bit slower speed.

ABS and Stability Control reduce this tendency, but cannot perform actual magic. They cannot create traction out of thin air.

For these reasons, I greatly prefer symmetric traction. Rotate the tires frequently enough to keep any front-rear traction mismatch small, then replace all four tires at the same time. This avoids the sub-optimal best-tires-on-front-or-rear debate completely.

 

Yeah I've never replaced just two, seems an ongoing dilemma.

 

And an easily avoided dilemma, merely by having a policy of keeping tires adequately rotated, and replacing tires in sets of four, not two.

My money supply is not so tight that I need to seriously consider taking the risk of replacing in just twos.

 

Also, DIY plug repair keeps you in the here-and-now, away from the enticing aroma of new tires.

 

what do you think caused all the creaking and groaning?

 

Bridgestone has created a mess, with these three iterations of a tire having one name. Sounds like a spaghetti western.

 

The higher speed rating indicates a different construction inside the tire. I'll always try to pick a tire with a cap ply (usually one nylon ply in the tread) that greatly helps stabilize the tire at high speed. Usually an H speed rated tire is needed for this.
"To get a tire to pass an H speed rating almost requires the tire to have an overlay - commonly called a "cap ply" and nylon is a commonly used material. This overlay restricts the growth of the tire due to centrifugal forces as well as the movement caused by the standing wave. Not only does this result in reduced stresses in the tire, it also reduces heat generation.

"Standing waves are the result of an individual tread segment entering the footprint and being deflected, and as that segment leaves the footprint, it overshoots the original position, then rebounds back and forth until the natural damping of rubber reduces the motion to almost zero. The amount the tread overshoots the starting point is small at low speeds, but as the speed increases, the standing wave grows not only in magnitude, but also how far around the tire it goes."
Barry's Tire Tech

Some people economize on tires by not rotating, then buy two at a time when a pair wears out. (Not me.) Sometimes a tire is badly damaged, must be discarded, and at least two are needed for good operation.