[xlr8or]

Jack,
Nice setup you suggested. Sounds pretty straight forward and reliable. Your statement of "Reliability for a daily driver" says it all and that is the same reason I put what I did. I am a torque junkie so I fall on the BB side of the argument and still want to "Pump, Turnkey & Go".
As far as the weight issue goes, once you have aluminum heads, intake, water pump, pistons, flywheel, rockers, etc. etc. the difference isn't really that much. We're mostly only talking about the difference in bare block and crank weights. I don't want a SB vs. BB debate here by any means but the original statement was: "The goal is to get maximum horsepower while retaining driveability and reliability."
It makes sense to me do it with less stress and less rpm.
If I was to go with an FIA 289 car your setup would be very similar to what I would want.

Simply a preference.