But not necessarily because of the engine. My Bo runs at 45% power at 8
gph and gets 150 mph indicated with the 520. Around the local area,
which is probably 75% of my flying I'm burning about 35% less gas than
the 182 I used to have(8 vs 12.5 gph).

Kind of an irrelevant point.

The idea was that for a second bird, I would pick specifications as
opposite as possible to my primary bird, if my primary bird fulfilled
my cruise mission, then there is absolutely no point in considering
cruise in my second bird and vice versa. He said he had a cruise ship
already, If I had such a bird (My poor 140 isn't, I would then only
see two options, either getting an extraordinarily expensive, ultra
fun plane (Extra-300, Mig-17) or an extraordinarily cheap, fun
plane, depending on how deep my pockets were.

I assumed that this gentleman was not made of money, and hence, he
would choose as I would and go with the inexpensive option, which
would generally necessitate a smaller engine for thermodynamic/weight
reasons, hence an O-320 or smaller.