Thanks for adding the links. For a one-sentence encapsulation of the writer's hilariously blinkered preference for titanium, it would be tough to beat this sentence from the Ti discussion at the second of the two links above:

It won't break, but if it does it requires specialty skills and equipment to repair.

By the way, there are plenty of threads here and elsewhere concerning broken titanium frames. Judging from the discussions, the toughest aspect of titanium seems to that of trying to get the Ti frame makers to honor their warranties.

If I were interested in a new bike at this point, I'd be looking for exactly what the OP asked for: a CF frame bike with 105 in the plus-minus $1,500 range.

But I'm satisfied with my aluminum bike. I still have two steel bikes (one Reynolds 853 and the other 531), but I haven't bothered riding either in the 10 years since I got the aluminum bike. I just wish aluminum frames had been around when I started racing in 1965.