Those are probably the XKR shocks he originally asked about.
I went round and round about the same thing a year ago when I needed replacements for my 2007 XK. Since the XKR shocks should be firmer than the XK shocks, I decided not to go that route, and went with the 2010-2011 XK shocks from the same seller for the same price (based on the Bilstein web site showing all XK’s using the same shock, as the OP probably also found).
Was this the right decision? I’m not sure, as they do seem a bit soft, but then I’m comparing the ride of new shocks versus bad shocks (which were very ‘thunky’).
To the OP - if you want a soft ride, go with the XK shocks, for a firmer ride, go with the XKR shocks.
AND, as stated above, those are tough springs to compress. I ended up renting two sets of spring compressors from the auto parts store (4 compressors) to compress each spring (start with 2, one on each side, compress as much as possible, then add the other 2, 90 degrees from the others, gripping on the now exposed distant coils, and compress some more). If you have an impact driver (air or electric), it will speed the process of turning those darn compressor bolts.