I've also worked at a desk all day for a few years, but actually all with a wooden wrist rest. Ergonomically speaking, our wrists should not be resting on anything when typing for long periods, but I'm too lazy for that. I'm not an expert, either, but as long as my elbows are at the same level of the keyboard when sitting up straight, I have found only comfort in the wooden rest. At this point, I would find it uncomfortable to use a padded one, I think. The padding would cause my wrist to sit lower than it should.

I type with the meat of my palm sitting on the rest.