I was with ya right up until this statement, which is very, very wrong--the world can always use another frankenbike; there aren't enough people spending heaps of money doing questionable mods to their bikes...

Appropos of nothing much except that we are discussing tires/wheel sizes, 26" rim with Schwalbe Big Apple 26 x 2.35 tire is .5" diameter larger than a 700 wheel with a 23c tire... which means a 2.1" tire would be just about the same. Usually this is what people advocating 650b are after, a smaller rim size so larger volume tires will equal out to the same diameter as 700 rim/tire combos. You can get there with a 26" rim, and if you enjoy BIG volume tires rather than those neither here nor there 650b tires, it's a reasonable way to go.