Personally, if you are happy enough with reduced power, I would do heads, intake and headers now and skip the cam.
The CJ intake and headers will make a noticeable difference. Doing a cam now and again next year seems like a pain to me.
FYI - Your discussion on bad gas is logical, especially if it was old gas. I have seen vehicles that sit for a long time, then get filled with fresh gas, do exactly what yours did. When they sit, the valves stick. However, it is usually an engine that sat for years and was fired with either old gas, or a tank so varnished that the new gas loosened things up and carried it in.