Welcome to SoCal!!
As for the type of pass to get, it really depends on where you live, your work schedule, etc etc.
We've had SoCal passes for 4 years, and we've loved them! We lived 15 minutes away, so we went a lot. We went on Sundays, Friday nights, etc. It's been wonderful! We did miss it during the summer, but it wasn't TOO long to go without. We don't want to go during Christmas break, holiday weekends, etc anyway - those are way too crazy for us!!! What we did hate was not having Saturdays, but that was just something we got used to.
Then I got a job as a teacher and we moved an hour away from DLR, so we're upgrading to Deluxe this year. SoCal doesn't work anymore. I would rather go Saturdays than Sundays, the traffic is too bad to go Friday nights, and now my vacations are almost all during blockout days!
It is true that Deluxe+Parking is not much different than Premium for one person. Since there are two of us and we only put parking on one pass, the price difference is too big. (P.s. you REALLY do need to get the parking! If you go 10 times it pays for it, and if you're like us, you WILL go way more than 10 times a year!)
I know a lot of people have SoCal Select but we've never been able to do that. Our school/work schedules have never permitted many weekday visits at all, other than Friday nights.
Monthly payments are a GREAT option for So Cal residents, by the way!