Would changing OS help?
I really appreciate any advice. I knew working with this printer would require some investment of my time but I don't feel as I'm making any progress.
It does sound like you have an issue with the OS. This can be caused by conflicting drivers - when you are installing the printer, it may not still be finding the correct resources.
I would suggest two paths. I'm sure you are frustrated, but I do know that the 3800 is a great printer, and works with OS X 10.4 and 10.5 very well.
First, rather than delete the epson folder, I would suggest you try uninstalling the driver - I believe there are some other files that need to be deleted not located in the Epson folder. Be sure the printer is unplugged, and make sure you have deleted the printer from your print center. Restart the Mac. Mount the disk image with the Epson driver installer, and select the uninstall option. You may get an file busy error on some of the files - I think I did, but for me this still worked despite the error. After the uninstall completes, I would again restart the mac. Mount the disk image with the driver and install the driver (make sure the printer isn't plugged in yet, or the OS may attempt to locate a driver which might be Apples). After this I would restart the Mac once more, the plug in the printer and create it from the print center. I don't remember 10.4 much but you may have to choose the More printers option, and select Epson USB to get the driver to load right.
If this doesn't work, you could resintall the OS. Do an archive and install, but when you install use the custom options and don't allow the OS to install any printer drivers. This way when you install the Epson driver you know it's the only one the system is aware of.
Good luck.