Hi Tash,
Thanks for a truly great thread, one of the most interesting for a long while.
I have a coupe of questions, I'm not the sharpest tool in the box so bear with me if you can.
Are you looking to get truly excellent image quality or the best image quality at your 24"x???? Yet have it come to you in an easy to use package....?
I'm not having a go here, quite the opposite in fact, to me a camera should fit me, my way of working and offer the smallest obstruction between what I want to take and taking it.
So on that score I applaud you and your reasoning.
I also can see that an IQ180 has too much cash tied up in it, especially as you only need 24"x3??? And hate the ritual of what is LF digital.
Before you sell it all, can you borrow a P45 and a couple of lenses...?
P45's are stellar and offer you plenty of resolution, through LR so does a P25 but let's leave that to another time.
The Mamiya 50mm shift is by far one of the best MF lenses out there and silly cheap right now, try ffordes.
Because of the new 28mmLS the normal 28mm are abundant so worth a haggle.
I'm suggesting this because a DF with the AF set up correctly (mine wasn't, is now, complete night and day) has some stellar lenses and a P45 would go a long way to giving you high quality prints and get you cash back off you OTT IQ180.
However.......and there's always an however.....
Would a correctly set up DF, 28mm phase lens and a P45 make you want to get out and shoot more often....?
Less chance of missing the spontaneous shot compared to LF and printed on a 24" printer, no problems....?
I found it worked for me many yrs ago (think film) 35mm was for snaps but 6x7 too clunky, I found my workhorse in the 645 system and still love it now, but I did shoot,shoot,shoot and shoot more so it became 2nd nature...
I have a Nikon, love it but its a machine gun to me, if I had a D800E I'd abuse it, treat it like a snap happy chap and my results would be awful.
In essence I think you have gone too big one one end and too convenient on the other, and missing the fact that the DF and wide range of lenses, married with the correct back, could put the spring back in your step.
Steve