compound is more important in my mind than width. You can only go so wide for the cars weight before its pointless to go wider. The size of your contact patch has alot more variables than just tire width. Things such as tread pattern, static/dynamic camber, weight shift, and the cars static weight. A light ass car isn't going to be able to really utilize wide ass tires since it doesn't have enough weight to transfer to effectively make the contact patch big enough to make a difference from a smaller tire. It becomes an exercise in diminishing returns after a while.
Case in point "Man tires" are relative to the car, 235's might be man tires on a AE86 but you need 305's on a camero.