You are bang on with your assessment of CXL.
It is definitely not for everything, though Horween manufactures many different leathers for different purposes.
CXL is not tool-able, stretches, blooms out, difficult to burnish edges, hard to stitch....etc
Get some good veg tan and use it for the tool cases and holsters. Save the CXL for a special project that will pop up.
Here is a link to a Horween post I started last year
http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=50700&hl=%2Bhorween+%2Bleathers