I see you've been doing your homework. Yeah it all comes down to control and more tune-ability. Considering all things equal, active is my preference hands down all the way. 3 way passive would be more ideal if let's say a tweeter and mid were perfectly right next to each other and the install was done right, then you can essentially treat them as one channel and you would actually benefit from it. In an automotive environment, the physical space is a bit more challenging so you find creative ways to make it work like cuttings holes and making fabrications, etc. Stock locations in a car usually have speakers far apart which causes problems in itself. That's why I'm a huge advocate of going full active dsp because it basically opens all doors for you. With passive, you are just stuck with what you have and there's not much you can do about it except for a little bit of EQ. In a perfect environment, passive setups are more than adequate. It's not like in home audio where you can place the speakers where you want, you can sit in the dead center of the sound stage and each speaker has it's own enclosure, but inside a car it's a bit more chaotic so it really just makes sense to go active as well as the other reasons you mentioned above. The amount of control you get from a DSP is superior in every category... makes you not want to ever go without one honestly. Don't get me wrong tho, there's a bit of a learning curve and it's going to flip your world upside down the more you learn about it. I think you should definitely consider a dsp and give active a try if you are brave enough to make that leap. The best bang for buck dsp out right now is the dayton dsp-408 with the bluetooth module. Look into it. It's extremely affordable, complete game changer in being able to afford a nice dsp these days.