Hey MO, you can perhaps straddle the line and go with a high end Point n Shoot (PnS). I purchased a Canon G9 right before Christmas. This somewhat expensive PnS features a lot of SLR features: you can manually control shutter speed, aperture and ISO. You can focus manually. At the same time, when you want, it is an excellent simple PnS. I have been very happy with it.

A KEY feature of this camera is that like so many PnS models, image quality is a nearly directly proportional function of the ISO. Many PnS make it difficult to control the ISO simply. The G9 neatly resolves this by having an external ISO dial on the body of the camera. Set and forget. None of the automatic functions override the ISO that you manually set. If you keep it in the 80, 100, 200 range, you get very good image quality. As you go above that, you start to see an increasing amount of digital noise, although it is on average better in this regard than any other PnS I have used.

So, the G9 might meet your needs nicely. It gives you the creative control you are looking for but without the large financial outlay and without having to lug around a huge bag of parts.