Choosing a ''No nonsense'' DSLR - why so hard? Advice needed (please)

You're doing it all wrong. You seem to be fixated on the body when it is the lens that brings in most of the 'quality'.

Buy the cheapest second hand full frame camera you can buy (Original Canon 5D) and some good fast glass.

Oh, but since you are familiar with manual control, how about skipping that all together and just getting a decent medium format film camera? A Bronica ETRS, 3 lenses, 2 backs, and metered prism should come in well under the $1000 mark, and will absolutely destroy anything modern by Canon or Nikon.

Just a thought, since you said the most important and fundamental feature of the camera must be image quality.