Just come out and take the green eyed blond for a ride that she is asking for

To be completely fair, a Mac -40X, -20X, or CXX on a bone stock engine will go most anywhere any of us frequent... And certainly will do a better job cutting wood or breaking rock... They all have compromises, and only the well informed pilot can make the best choice for his plane, budget and mission. Quite frequently, the gains are quite minimal, and only affect certain phases of flight.

Skalywag, did you come up with a solution?

I swapped out my Mac C18 82" for a Mac C66 88" prop and the difference was fairly noticeable. Here we have high density altitudes and don't really have to worry much about the tips going supersonic. It is noisy though.

Perhaps you can swap your 82" blades for the 88" blades on your new C204 for a cheap and quick solution? We all want a 3 blade MT, but as Rob stated, the old Mac's do pretty well for most situations and environments.

Edit: nothing nice to say about MT after owning one.

I have a two blade MT prop in my 182 and really like it, I would do it again.
I land in grass strips, gravel, dirt, and paved ones.