I own 3 trucks, and I can honestly say my tires last a LOT longer if I do the rotations for sure, generally every 6k on my 2 lighter trucks, on my cummins diesel, they get rotated every 3k.....if I don't do this, the tires for sure wear faster.
I think heavy trucks in general, i..e the diesel, just run out the tread faster anyways.
As far as balancing; my tacoma doesn't seem to care; however my diesel will most definitely have a tire or two that needs rebalanced every time, doesn't matter the brand of tire, and I do NOT drive that truck like a race car....my trucks have to last me a long time so I baby them off the line as much as I can.
My rodeo's front end is very sensitive, even though it's built like a tank, or overbuilt, is another choice of words, but I can always tell when a tire is out of balance on that truck.
Bridgestone Revo's were the tires on both trucks that had the least amount of need to rebalance; yokohama's were the worst in the fact they needed very frequent rebalancing.