You hit it on the head with your last note. Pickiest and issue filled device is about right. Thing is, the 5130 device was chosen due to the pricepoint, but the downside is that it has NO LEGACY ROM!! This has hamstrung us so much, but whatcha gonna do. It can't be set to Legacy mode.
I typically do my image builds in VM as well. Due to the timeframe and scope of this project, I elected to due a hardware-dependent build based off the factory image. I don't intend to keep doing this as I'd hoped it would be faster but it's turned out to cause more issues because of the capture etc.
Regarding the capture of the entire partition, I haven't had to do anything special before prior to capture for ImageW to only capture the used bits. I'm trying to figure out what's "special" about this device (and it's lovely 6 partitions) that is causing the bits to appear as used even though they aren't.
I appreciate the offer to contact offline and may have to take you up on that Gru.