@Arachnotron
I don't really have anything to add. I just wanted to thank you for the test pic and all of the work you have been doing on this. I havn't been able to run the test myself (busy time of the year), but I'd like to. Have you ever seen the AVIA pixel cropping test pattern. This might give you some ideas on yours. They stagger the lines on a grey background. I'll try to post a link in a few hours.
Cheers.
Edit:
Here are the pics. The first is the pattern they use. The second is some instructions they provide. I thought this might be helpful as a contrast to your approach. As to the merrits, you'd know better than me. It appears they avoid the issue of high frequency events by staggering the vertical lines. Also, they include markers in the corners that can be used on a scope (they say).
http://pics.trevlac.us/img.htm?crop.jpg
http://pics.trevlac.us/img.htm?cropinfo.gif