Update - this evening I finally got to experience a saddle at hunting height. Thanks to some suggestions from
@Nutterbuster concerning tether height and a few other things I was able to get a little more comfortable in the ambush, not that I thought it was uncomfortable before but it's much better now. I have ordered knee pads as of today, knees against the tree without them is a no go for me but I was definitely more comfortable then I would have been in one of my ladder stands after sitting for that amount of time.