During Ken Preston's great talk at the Expo, he mentioned that he would use roller guides only as the stripper and tip top and conventional guides for the rest. What was his thinking behind this? would this recommendation hold for a spiral wrap? would the stripper roller be offset in a spiral?

If you are going to use a roller as a stripper on an off-set spiral then you should purchase the roller that is designed for that application. They are available from Mudhole as "@#$%& Spiral Roller Degree Guides". My thinking is that the stripper and the roller take the most wear - especially side to side (line control function) as line is pulled from the reel or off the end of the rod tip. Secondly unless you are talking about 80lb and up rods ANY of the new ringed type guides will hold up as far as wear is concerned. It's a "maintenance" issue as well dependent upon the customer and how well the rods are maintained dockside - non roller guides require less routine maintenance.

Ken, I guess what I'm asking is should I use only the top as a roller? or top and stripper? and will using both make the rod easier on me when fighting a fish?
Originally I was going to use reg SIC for the stripper and bumpers then rollers the rest, but after your comment I thought maybe I could save some cost by using just 2 rollers, top and stripper. If properly laid out, do all guides have the same load on them?

You can very likely get by with ALL conventional guides. I believe a roller tip would be helpful and that a roller as a stripper would also be beneficial. If properly laid out - yes, all the guides will have the same vertical load which is why at the talk I did I said that in MOST cases roller guides are not necessary except in the very heaviest rods.