Gah, no, that's not it at all. It feels like we're moving farther, rather than closer, to understanding each other's position.

I seem to have irreparably placed us on a wrong track with my post so I think I'll stop trying to recover from it. To make progress it would be best to start again from the ground up with a completely different write-up of my core idea. But for now, at least, I'll let this rest.