I'm using products for subscriptions and haven't migrated to the new subscriptions (not sure yet). Is there a way with products on the registration screen to highlight a preferred product? Maybe this is available with subscriptions, not sure. I'd like to pre-select one to highlight it and draw to that option. Is this possible?

Not without customization.  

There is one IPS developer who is privately floating the idea but I don't know if he'll ever release.  

I think this would be a good idea in general ... on the registration screen, on the subscription screen, etc.  

Not available in subscriptions either, all the subscriptions plans have the same element IDs, you need to use CSS selectors to identify the right one to make changes to, not ideal.