A few years ago I had similar - I thought I could feel what I considered excess movement when braking at slow speeds, but I never had any "normal driving" symptoms.

So one day I grabbed a dude from here at work and we went down to an empty parking lot (church parking lots are great for this stuff on a weekday), and I had him drive under 5 mph and then brake whilst I stood on one side, and then the other side. Sure enough, even though the bushings normally have some give, I could tell by eye that one front wheel tended to pull back under braking a little more than the other. Ordered up a pair of assemblies off rockauto. Made a nice difference. And of course with the old units out I could see that while not shredded, the bushings were not gonna hang in there.

Not reaching any particular conclusions on your specific situation, but I would consider a a parking lot test. Go real slow - slow enough you can follow the tire rotation, and that's all it takes since under braking any excess play will be visible.