Great write up Adam!
Lots of detail and useful information.
YES! Ed, the Skywatcher can be "pushed" in both Alt and Az without effecting the alignment. This is a great feature. ("dual encoders" on each axis).
As good as the Skywatchers are, Steve, have you considered the Orion (goto or push to as mentioned previously). See this review:
Orion XX14i Intelliscope Truss Tube Dobsonian
I have looked through this scope many times and it is of a very high quality (IMHO).
The differences in bases referred to by Russ I believe he was referring to the fact that the SW14 and above the base is designed to be disassembled easily for ease of transport etc, while the SW12 and lower, the bases is not easily disassembled and generally stays in one piece.
The Orion 14 above also disassembles for transport.