Hi, never be put off by someone else's idea of the ideal machine, whatever, most times they haven't even got a machine and can only go by what they think will work.......Henry Ford proved it can be done a different way.
Your final rendition is unorthodox, but interesting.......you need to justify your design concept ...to yourself.
Once you have the "ideal" design that surpasses all other designs...LOL.....walk away, put the computer file to bed, and sleep on it.
The sub conscious will work out a lot of ideas without you knowing it, and a couple of days later when you open the file again, you'll see it in a different light........getting too close to the design for an extended period will blur you to either concept or proportions.
That's how I see a situation that is new and conceptual.......it always could be done a different way once you have committed to making it.
The old rule of think twice and cut once pays here.
BTW, by abilities I tend to assume the other guy is a fully qualified machinist with design qualifications and a fully operational work shop with nothing to do all day but work on projects for the fun of it........rarely in the real World.
With a budget of at least 4G's you can delve in the pool of the imagination quite a bit, but if you blow your total budget on a machine build concept and it doesn't fly, you won't be able to recover your outlay, except for break it up and retrieve the parts for another build etc.
In the end it sometimes pays to get the feel of a working out of the box model and adapt the design for your own needs, selling the original one when you outgrow it.
It's fun to design and build, but frustrating when it doesn't perform.
Ian.