Power valves are really designed to provide enrichment at full-throttle - or close to it.
The reason blocking the power valves probably worked was because it was running really rich - due to both of them having the wrong vacuum settings and dumping too much raw fuel into the engine at the wrong time. The stock power valves (or the ones supplied with kits) will open at too high of a vacuum level (too early . . . or all the time). With a single carb, the standard valve is probably about right - with multiple carbs, they usually need to be changed. Also, many of the carb kits supply valves with no damn numbers on them . . . so one can maybe guess they are a 6.5 or a 7.5, but who knows.
In a perfect world, one would use a vacuum gauge (inside the car) to monitor the vacuum levels and then select the correct power valves to match the vacuum signals of your particular engine. The old Holley rule was to take a vacuum reading at idle and then cut that number in 1/2 - to select a power valve number . . . this MIGHT get you in the ballpark with a single carb, but using a vacuum gauge when you are driving the car is a better way (along with a WB02 meter if you happen to have one hooked up

)
You'll probably find that switching to somewhere around a 3.5 to 4.5 power valve with dual carbs will work well. With that said, many of the modern power valves don't seat quite right (too much radius in the gasket corner area) - so I take the radius out of the gasket area on my lathe. I've seen pictures of this process posted someplace - just don't remember where?
I think you'll find that if you get them right, you'll have the best of both worlds - good economy when at partial throttle and good power at full throttle.
B&S