I rarely check the Astrology forum - I should more often! This is a wonderful discussion.
One of the few threads I started (outside the Historical section of the Forums) was one dealing with precisely issues raised herein (
see here).
Personally, and though I but rarely erect, and even more rarely interpret, charts, I still maintain an interest in the subject. A little (unpublished but completed) book I wrote about eight years ago also deals with various house systems and presents what I consider a way of conjoining a sidereal and tropical view - though in ways which few sidereal astrologers would find satisfying (I have actually ultra-succinctly outlined this in the thread linked above).
As well as sidereal and tropical astrology, mention should also be made of two other forms which have arisen and are used by some (though I find these, though conceptually and mathematically highly interesting, just not human-centred enough): a Solar-centred chart erection, and a mid-solar/earth centred chart erection.
This last is quite a charming version, for it depicts the movement of the Earth and the Sun as lemniscating the point from which the 'observation' is made.
Personally, I find that a well formulated tropical zodiac, whilst acknowledging the spiritual forces as provening from the sidereal zodiac, yields wonderful and deeply satisfying charts.
For myself, I also tend to basically disregard the 'transpersonal' trans-Saturnian planets and the asteroids... which so many astrologers find so illuminating (that's right - I do not even chart Cheiron!)
Wonderful discussions...
please continue!