Jerry,

A good analysis. One problem with the "affordable high-end camera" idea is
that anything under $1K is considered a home-use camera by the industry.
This targeted group is perceived to want simple, single lens cameras. Not
necessarly point and click, but fairly bulletproof, with few things to lose
track of.  The pro-shooter wants to use existing lenses - so the nikon,
contax (6 megapixels!) and fuji systems accomodate that, but at a price
(usually $3k and up).  Many of us have lenses, from the days before the
simple SLR's used now, but are not true professionals - it is hard to
justify that $3k camera body (and a newer, better one will be out next year,
guaranteed, no matter your choice).

One retrofit I recently saw is a film-substitute that captures images to
digital film. It only works with selected models, all high-end professional
type equipment. I think the resolution for this product is about 2
megapixels, currently.

2 megapixels or just a bit more, at full resolution and stored as a tiff,
should produce prints at 8x10 that are comparable to film. poster-size
requires higher res - 3mp might be enough, but the new 5 and 6 mp systems
should do just fine.  Of course, you'll need that 512MB film cartidge to
store that size pictures on.