My experience is mainly in a machine shop and don't have near the experience with wood a lot of you guys have. But a couple of observations:
"The shavings are not expelled as efficiently as with the brad point..."
When drilling materials that make a small chips like wood, don't try to plunge all the way in one shot. Drill a short way, back the drill up to clear the chips, and repeat until you punch through or reach the desired depth. You'll end up with a cleaner hole that is truer to size.
As to speeds, the general rule for carbon steel was to turn the speed up until you just reach the point where the flutes disappear, slower for harder materials, faster for softer. Anytime we worked with wood or plastic, it was crank the ol' Bridgeport up as fast as she'd go. Can't remember offhand what that was in RPM's, not nearly as fast as a router, but probably comparable to a drill press.
I couldn't tell you how well they work in wood, but Cleveland twist drills always seemed to be the most popular in machine shops.