I can offer opinions... but I don't know how much help they will be as my situation is completely different than yours in many respects. We all use our devices differently and you are on the East Coast (probably urban) and I am on the west coast in the boonies.
I might as well say right up front that I hate all cell service providers. First and foremost, I have a phone to make phone calls. All of the cell service providers seem to be much more focused on data rather than phone service. The handset manufacturers seem more interested in camera's than reception.
That being said. I'm a Verizon customer because they have the best reception for places I go. No one else is even close. I say that even though their reception isn't as good as I used to have. Back in the late 80's or early 90's I got my first cellular phone. It was a motorola bag phone through Cellular One. Cellular One was owned by RCC that got bought out by Verizon in 2006 or 2007 (I think). Our phones were GSM prior to the Verizon buyout and we then were forced to CDMA. I had much better coverage locally when we were GSM. However, we were mostly 800 mhz transmitters and Verizon switched everything to 1900 mhz. So even though there are many more transmitters, I still don't get as good of coverage. I'm told that it is because the 800 mhz transmitters had better range, though wouldn't carry as much bandwidth. I would switch to a different carrier if I could get better coverage. And also, Verizon has horrible customer service. I'm pretty convinced Verizon cares absolutely nothing about the individual consumer. Another thing you might consider when looking at CDMA vs GSM, you can't transmit data and voice at the same time on a CDMA phone. You can on GSM.
Once upon a time, I switched to Sprint/Nextel for almost two weeks. Not a good experience. I wouldn't try to use their system again if they paid me to use their service. I have carried Tmobile and ATT phones on a loaner basis a couple of times. Tmobile is great if you stay in metropolitan areas, but is a joke outside of town. ATT is the closest to Verizon over areas I ever travel, but is way behind. US Cellular has the best local coverage, but sometimes I'm not local.
I don't think I'd own a phone without a removable battery. A guy I work with has an Apple phone and it has locked up when updating. Twice. Can't do anything with it except send it in. Verizon will send out a replacement right away, but it still leaves him without a phone for a day or two.
Back in the analog days, Nokia was my favorite manufacturer after they started making better phones than Motorola. They were tougher and got better reception. Currently I use Nokia (now MIcrosoft) windows phones. Samsung used to make a pretty good windows phone. Don't think they do anymore. I like Samsung. If I had an android phone I would go with Samsung. I just don't like the HTC phones even though they seem to have a good name. LG's also have a good name, I just think the Samsungs make better android phones and Lumia's are better windows phones.
Verizon seems to hate windows and try to talk everyone into Iphones. They tell everyone that the windows phones don't work well and are confusing. I got a windows phone originally because my father, who is mechanically inclined, has much trouble with computers and current technology. He worked hard trying to use Apple phones, and would have got there with the android phones, but I handed him a windows phone and he was using it the first day and has had very few issues over the last 3+ years. He's on his second Lumia. Verizon doesn't have any windows 10 phones. They have not "approved" windows 10 for use on their system. You can make your windows phone run windows 10, but it takes some work. Another thing I like about windows phones is that they handle microsoft office files natively. That is handy for me. Also, I can remotely connect to my office computer from the field with just a touch of an icon. I can get files or send print jobs from anywhere. Neither androids or apples handle word and excel files well. They both can connect remotely, but mine just seems to work faster an easier.
I have not heard of any security issues with windows phone. I'm not sure how much that is dependent on the operating system and how much is because the bad guys don't typically go after fringe markets and windows phones only make up a small percentage of the phone market. You may have noticed that there have been very few true "infections" in the malware forum since the advent of windows 8/8.1/10. Current operating systems are just more secure. People mostly come to the forums with PUP's and PUM's. In the vast majority of cases, it is something they downloaded and installed. It is rare to accidentally download and install something on a phone.
I don't know if pricing is the same, but in my part of the world, you and your wife could share 6gb of data on a plan with two phones and spend about $100 per month. I use wi-fi as much as possible so that would be more data than I ever use. If the two of you only need 3gb of data, your cost would be about $15 less. (I'm on a business plan with 12 lines so I share 25gb for $30 per phone - we have never used more than 3.5gb in a month)
If you want the most you can get for the money, you might consider the resellers like Straight Talk. There you can get unlimited plans for $45 or less per phone/month.
Obviously, the choices are legion and the final decision is personal. Good luck.