For the price of a new carb you could have a Megasquirt EFI setup with LC-1 wideband runnign in the car. The MS system is Speed Density, so no airflow meters to restrict things. You will have to retune for modifications typically, but it's easier than playing with a carb that only has one setting (jets). A carb becomes a restriction in itself, or if you go bigger so it's not a restriction, it's hard to get it to run right, so you're always hurting your power unless you get the perfect size carb (difficult, most people just slap one on).
If you really care about max power, no matter what you do you'll be tuning with a wideband and/or on a dyno. Of course my opinion is to go EFI.
You can always get a MAF setup that will work okay, but I doubt it would ever be as smooth and driveable as a Megasquirt system. Check out the guys at Turbomustangs.com that are running them, and even more at Turboford.org, including me! Currently around 300 WHP on a 2.3 turbo four cylinder. If you ever decide to add boost or major upgrades and go for big power, you'll be glad you had the EFI. Driveability is simply amazing, no choke, no more mechanical control, and it's easy to set everything. The software is completely user friendly, I can guarantee that.
And assuming the car is factory EFI, (but at least the EFI parts are available from those years if it's not) you're already setup for EFI very easily. All I did was make a jumper harness to plug into my factory harness, stock sensors, no wires had to be cut at all.
The MS is DIY which requires soldering which is easy to learn, a little wiring might be required, but you can also buy them pre-assembled. Putting one together is quite a learning experience, but not hard if you can just follow directions. It's the super cheap way to EFI.
I haven't even mentioned the extra features you get with EFI that will require extra boxes if you go carb. With Megasquirt, launch control is built in, as well as: water injection control, closed loop wideband O2 correction, AFR target tables, multiple rev limits (hard and soft), plus full ignition control of course so your ignition timing can be fully mapped out, and so many other features I could never list them all here. It's very similar to a FAST EFI system at like 1/10 of the cost.
www.megasquirt.info
www.msefi.com
Carbs might be simpler, but if you think they are a better choice on a platform that was designed to be EFI from the factory, then it shows you are unwilling to learn a few simple ideas to go EFI. Spend a few moments on those websites and I think you'll see EFI is not really that complicated and has far better fuel control.