Hi Ron, great post and wise conclusion (Merlot is a nice thought-provoker then ;-))
I am no Camaro fan but your train of thoughts seems to me very consistent and convincing.
Indeed it looks and probably feels a middle-of-the-road approach between the Monaco and the Carrera, blending together the most meaningful features of both while smoothing some of the others.
And definitely a less striking departure from the Carrera pure lines than the avant-garde Monaco, while allowing Heuer to use up some outstanding manual movements in a period of slump as Mr. Heuer himself recalls in Arno's book preface.
Even the name sounds a bit like a mixture of theirs, isn't it?
Cheers,
Fabrizio