No suggestions here, just a report. We came through Johnson City yesterday and are now staying (briefly) in Fredericksburg. I say "no recommendations" because I know you would not want to follow our route since we had reason to spend a night in Bryan.
However, we did come though Tyler and, as usual for us, we took the NW loop around. We just moved on without any delay. We have never been on the 49 toll road as it would not fit in with the fact that we come in from US 271 which is not connected.
On our return home we will come into Tyler on TX 31 and again take the NW loop over to 271.
Our usual route to the Hill Country would be to come on over to US 281, but that is because we like to avoid cities and freeways as much as possible.
Have a nice trip.