Can any compact format fullfill this need really well ??

I also thought it would be a rather special lens for me before I had it, but now it's one of the backbones of my lens lineup for mFT.

For sure a good move in order to get a feeling for the FOV, + - DoF and MF vs AF with similar lenses for alternative mirrorless system solutions, whichever they might be in the end. As mentioned before, an EVF and the better high ISO capabilities of the recent generation of EVILs will make life easier than it's the case with your current DSLR. So if your camera comes close, pretty much no recent mirrorless will be a bad choice.