I went to heavy gauge strings many years ago - 11 to 56 with a wound G, which makes string buying a drag as no-one does a set with the exact gauges I really, really prefer! I found the heavy strings were much nicer to play though I will say it took a few months for the fingers to callus up!! Finger strength was OK as I was swinging on the end of a fairly big chainsaw in the forestry at the time which lends itself to quite strong left hand fingers!
These days I buy a stock set from d'addario - in bulk - which is close enough for the amount of playing I do currently.