One more opinion--I put in the IPD swaybars and Bilstein HD struts and shocks this summer. I was worried that the Bilsteins might be too stiff, but not so! Of course your tires/struts/shocks work as a system so you should know that I run on 15" rims which means a higher sidewall and that damps the struts a bit. You may have noticed that currently the nose of your car may tend to drift a bit when you hit bumpy sections of road. The Bilsteins absolutely stop that and gived you wonderful directional control. Combined with the swaybars, it feels like I have a new car and makes me wonder why I waited so long to do this. So the ride with the Bilstein HDs is firm to be sure, but I find it comfortable (and I'm 62) and the sense of control is fabulous.

If you do this work yourself (I did), be sure to put in new spring seats (possibly mounts) front and back. IPD will give you a discounted package price for swaybars struts and shocks.
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96 850T, Bilstein HD, IPD swaybars

Just one person's perspective - if the car has had 156k miles of city use it is likely to be kind of loose everywhere, and you would have to replace a lot of parts to restore anything near the original ride quality. Replacing shocks, struts, bushings, etc which are not defective but merely worn has never (for me) yielded a worthwhile improvement in ride and handling on an older car.

If you have an actually defective part that would be a different situation - maybe even affecting your safety. In such a case I replace only the defective items. May be worth a close look at ball joints, links, and strut mounts if the handling of the car has deteriorated. Did you often carry heavy loads which would make the springs an issue?

What about your tires? New and/or higher performance tires might be more satisfying.