Ok,
So over the weekend I did some more research and looked some more into Yamaha, which I had not really considered previously as I had a bit of a real head/mesh fetish but since I was now looking into a mostly rubber Roland setup anyway it seemed like a good idea.
I cruised the music stores Saturday and ended up ordering the DTXpress IV Special. Winning factors were the VH11-like hihat, the 3 zone snare/crash/ride and of course the price. Drawbacks were the single zone toms and the need to use y-cables to access the last 3 remaining trigger inputs and the lack of MIDI IN - as well as how ugly I think the rack and module are - but function over form eh?!
Anyway... it seems like this ends my Alesis adventure for now... though I think I'll still lurk here as I am interested in the DIY talk as well as the evolution of the DM10 module. Thanks especially to Phil for answering my e-drum questions over the past few months.