Having pulled trailers with both electric and surge brakes, I much prefer the electric for a TT application. If it were a boat trailer going in/out of the water, especially salt water all the time, it would be a different answer. I certainly wouldn't pay extra for surge brakes in this case.
As far as controllers go, I have a Tekonsha P2 in both my vehicles and have been very happy with them. For me, they offered the best of both worlds in that they work great but are still reasonably priced.
I can't answer for the WDH system for a Ridgeline except to say that if you need a WDH to transfer some of the tongue weight from the rear axle to the front axle, there isn't really a substitute for it. With our setup that is about the same weight you are looking at, we don't need a WDH because I have little to no unloading of the front wheels when hitched. But I'm also towing with a much heavier duty truck with a much longer wheel base.
I do run a friction sway control like the one pictured above mainly as cheap insurance. I've never experienced any sway with our set-up even without the sway control, but given the relatively low cost (as low as $40-$50) of the system and ease of using it (adds maybe a minute to the hitching process), it didn't make sense not use it. It only has to prevent one incident involving damage to more than pay for itself.
