Interested, and largely agree with the rest of what you said, but I think that you raise another issue about the quality of the L lenses, when put on a 1Ds III. I haven't read great reports about the 24TS lens for instance.
I'm waiting on some stuff coming, including a Mamiya-Canon shift adapter, and can't wait to try the Hartblei Super-rotator (45) and the Mam 45 shift and 50 shift on the 5D.
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Yes with the 45+90tse you can do this stitching stuff, not so, or not very usefull with the 24tse, cause so heavy distortion and also unsharp if shifted. that to an extent that you get bigger files but so bad resolution at the edges that its no fun.
i was doing long time what kirk is doing and you get very skilled if you work in this way. i shot for longer times also, mostly on the light source depending, digital 35mm or 4x5". i learned a lot and i cannot say that these works would not hold up any standard. shift and wa enses have been a big hassle with 35mm and i ended up with some specials, as a complete line of pentax 645 lenses from 35mm up with a zoerkendorf adapter,- these can be shifted with sharp results about 20mm in every direction. also i found the olympus 24mm pc lens the only one which is sharp if shifted and does not distort so much that it frightened me. found a more or less sharp sigma 12-24 .... and so on ( but i bought and sold nearly all WA and shift stuff which exists, including adapters for canon mount ). a good 35mm setup is ok to work for architecture also, if you learn to do it,- but it has its limits and one of these is that i would advice urgently to accompany this nice 35mm setup with 4x5" in case you need it, and you will need it probably or at least i did.
since 1,5 year i work now with mf with a ( in parts ) custom made camera and 22+33mp sensors. this setup works great now,- and i have forgotten film and one of its advantages is that i can work digital only now,- still not with one set because the canon still is sometimes very usefull.
but if someone asks me if he should change to digital i am very carefull to advice him to go immediatelly to mf. i think the step of learning to use 35mm digitals at their limit will teach so much, that its not bad to do it before. there is no "must", and i cant repeat it often enough- i.m.o. the price of your equipment does not reflect the quality of the work and even less the quality of the photographic skills. much hype in this,- crazy times, crazy habbits.