I've been on suboxone 5 times since I've been 17, usually for around 6-8 months at a time until this last time when I agreed to go on it for 2-5 years to finally properly treat my opiate use disorder.
I've been on the strips, on varying doses between 24mg and 2mg, as well as on the Buprenorphine monthly injection (sublocade).
I found that stabilising, I normally started on a dose between 4-6mg which would often give me a small buzz for a week or 5 days or so, then wear off.
One of the prescribers was for some reason supportive of higher dose Suboxone, and dosed me up to 24mg which I found shit, because it didn't do anything positive compared to the downside of being harder to come off after a period of time, and I was on a schedule to get off the medication by 6 months from then to go overseas.
I dropped from 24mg to 4mg in around 2 weeks rapidly, and found I had zero issues with withdrawal from dropping that dose.
Other times I've definitely found that stabilising on the absolute lowest possible dose is the best outcome. It means your withdrawal will be easier, by a wide margin, and also reduces negative side effects. The sweet spot I would say is 2-4mg.
At the moment I have to be up at equivalent to 8mg per day for 64mg sublocade monthly. I love the monthly injection, it's so convenient and I never have to go to the chemist every day for my pick ups and start resenting that, my dose is done in usually under 30 min and I'm on my way.
I've found the injection is better for me, as I haven't even tried using on top of it because I actually don't believe it's possible due to the constant blood level of Buprenorphine in my system. That, and because I can't skip my dose I can't get it low enough to manage to use. It being injected for me also means that I cannot abuse my maintenance therapy as I don't have any strips to shoot, snort it smoke.
I've also been on subutex, which where I live is used for a slow taper off suboxone. They prescribe it in 0.4mg doses and you slowly work your way down from 2mg. I've felt the best of all times I've been on maintenance therapy while on subutex instead of Suboxone.
I can't stress enough, stabilising on the *lowest* dose you possibly can is crucial to success with maintenance therapy and having a painless taper.
There is only a certain level at which suboxone adds any positives to a patient's life, and that threshold is basically reached by 8mg. More than that it's practically adding an increased dose with no real reason to do so, and the downside of meaning that you'll fuck up the taper at the end.
The only people who should remain on higher doses of maintainance therapy are those who cannot stop using opiates while on the medication, and who are very likely to remain on the maintenance therapy their entire life. In those situations it makes sense to dose them high to try and block their receptors and prevent their use but for everyone else it's relatively pointless and counter productive.