Brake drums and pads....Got some questions

I can't help you on the drums, but I did put Hawk brand brake pads on my 2003 Dodge 2500 and the tucks stops noticeably better than with the stock pads.

Hawk Performance

I found my magnets were wearing into the face of the brake drums and causing the wavy surface you mentioned. When I took a closer look at the edges of the magnet faces I noticed that they were sharp (due to wear) and the small metal 'filings' were exacerbating the wear. I used a small file and filed all of the edges of the magnets so they were chamfered (slightly rounded) and not sharp, and that went a long way towards reducing the wear! Every time I had them apart to repack the bearings I made sure the edges were filed again to keep them from becoming sharp and that has worked well for me.