Tires Nexen or Maxxis

Your trails sound pretty similar to what I ride. I have a set of Ardent 2.25s that I really like.

I love my aggressor on the rear, rolls and grips well.

I've been quite happy with my Nexens on my E39. They're quiet and smooth. Oh yeah, grip in the snow is quite good too.

I run Nexen N'Fera SU1 tires on my GTI in the summer: https://www.nexentireusa.com/tires/high-performance/n-fera-su1 Best budget tires I've ever tried. They are wearing nicely, grip in dry and wet is great. I was VERY surprised about the wet weather performance. I'd buy them again and again, no questions asked.

I also have a minion DHF for downhill and "rowdy" trail or wet/sandy conditions. It rolls a lot better than I expected for such tall knobs

just mounted a few pairs of maxxis tires, dhf, hr2, a dhr, and an ardent exo casings, all done by hand, found them quite easy to mount beads poped right on.

Me and my girlfriend have both been running tubeless Maxxis folder tires on Easton Rims for five seasons and I never had any problems mounting them.

I've mounted and remounted a handful of EXO casing maxxis tires recently with almost no effort at all. Typically I don't even use a lever to mount them, only remove. They all seated on the first try with a hand pump too.

The N3000 is ok. Had them on my A4 Avant when I bought it. Dry grip is pretty good, and they do ok in the wet, too. Definitely lacking in grip compared to something like PS2s but not bad. Sidewall is moderately soft and they wear quicker than expected.

Don't get Nexen. I got 2 for my SiLs car and they started to come apart in less than a year, side wall. Looked online and others had the same issue. When I contacted Nexen they did not seem to care.