For the weight/balance combo, that comes down to personal preference and practice. I actually like an 18 or 20 with a +2 extension. That seems to be the quickest for me. (except for the Saiga, but different thing there totally).
You've mentioned weight training. Actually I think the best weight training for guns, is handling those guns. Even Jeff Cooper talked about carrying your hunting rifle around the house for practice. If you want to build up your speed and manipulation strength, go shoot lots of clay pigeons.
There are various arguments about how to keep your shotgun loaded. The two main schools are strong vs. weak hand reloading. I would recommend going over to the 3gun forums at Brianenos.com and doing a search. 3gunners have more experience loading a shotgun fast than anybody on the planet, and you will find lots of good information there. Personally I keep the gun at my shoulder and load with my weak hand. (4 at a time, but that is a totally different topic)
For me I just went and bought an 870P Max, it already had all the accessories I wanted, and none that I didn't.
I need the forend light, my old mossberg didn't have one and after a couple bump investigations I really wanted one. The sights are nice, since I'm in the county and use of slugs is conceivable. I have the combo stock on every shotgun, I just like it.
All that being said, I was going to put a sidesaddle on it, but decided against it, for the exact reasons of the above posters -- it would add a lot of weight with no real gain. I thought I was going against the grain with this decision, since it seems like every internet user's shotgun has a sidesaddle (at the minimum), but maybe I'm not.
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