I used polished carrara on my last bathroom remodel and it does, indeed, etch pretty badly. There's a polish powder you can buy online but I never used it. At any rate ... HONED ;)

I am going with a 2" hex style black and white tile. I love the look of the "old" tiles like the hex and basket weave. I don't like subway, either, though and I felt that glass mosaic didn't look right with either. I'm going with Florida Tile's Calacatta http://www.floridatile.com/products/precious in the shower and a 4 x 4 white square around the tub. I would look at a Calacatta or Cararra porcelain subway (or larger brick style). You'll really need samples of both with your basket weave to make sure that the whites match. In one brand (can't remember which), the Calacatta was too warm, but their Cararra matched well. Florida Tile's Calacatta matched better than the Cararra. It comes in several sizes including an elongated hex and herringbone.... but that may be too busy for the basketweave.

I have marble basket weave tile which has a lot of grout. I used a light gray and not a white for the grout. This was what looked good and also was intended to minimize maintenance issues. It has been over two years and it still looks great - there might be a few places where something small drop is causing minor discoloration but it just blends. My floor is not pristine white though - it is Calacatta marble. However my experience with white tile is that it is pretty forgiving - black and dark tile however shows every bit of dust just as is true for dark wood floors as opposed to lighter floors.

FWIW, I have Calacatta marble basket weave tiles on my bathroom floor and shower floors. The grout is a soft gray and I have no issues with maintainance. It doesn't appear to be dirty and it just blends in with the rest of the tile. If after a number of years. I have had it installed for almost 3 years and it still looks the same as when it was installed. I love having small tiles as it makes me feel secure. I don't have need a rug or anything else to add visual clutter because the surface - even if it is wet or my feet are damp is so grippy. That is also true of the shower. I had larger tiles prior to my remodel and I felt I needed to be ultra cautious wherever I put my feet. At least for me the issues of grout maintenance and marble etching or discoloration or whatever were wildly overstated as - with normal maintenance and not fanatical maintenance - they still look great. If at some point a decade from now, they need to be restored, it is not that expensive to have a professional come in to clean the grout and marble. My building has it done periodically in the common areas and it always looks as good as new and those floors get significantly more wear than my bathrooms do.