Jim
Unfortunately, you find yourself in the position of wishing to pursue a perfectly valid branch of photography for which there is almost no popular support. I have the same feelings of frustration myself, most of the time. Many times I have posted about a problem I am experiencing on this forum, and the response has been mostly one of polite puzzlement as to why on earth I would wish to do "x" in the first place. But as you have found, ink-jet printers are only absolutely wonderful and the complete bee's knees if you wish to make very large and mightily impressive colour prints. Which is what almost everyone seems to want to do.
On the other hand, from my personal point of view, why on earth would I want to do that? I can put 10x8 or smaller prints, sleeved, in albums which I can pick up and browse. I can frame them to a maximum size over the frame of 11x14 ins, which are quite practical to hang in my tiny cottage with very little wall space. If I was printing 20x16 or larger, what could I do with the damn things? I certainly have no space to hang them, so they would just sit in a portfolio where I and no-one else would ever see them.
The other serious problem with even the very best ink-jets, which you have not so far mentioned, is that if you examine the prints with a loupe you will see that they cannot deal with very subtle highlight gradations. This is because, even with a light-light black ink eventually as the highlight approaches the uppermost zones, the printer can no longer lay down continuous tone but has to resort to spacing the dots wider apart. Unlike a silver-gelatine print, which is truly continuous tone even in the lightest highlights.
John