You’re with understanding friends here on the C&V forum. Had you posted this on “general cycling discussion” the outcome might have been much worse. There was a winter thread about down tube shifting where the fans of downtube shifting were endlessly bombarded with silly arguments about why down tube shifting made no sense to them. Thoughtful responses about the usefulness of down tube shifters were shot down again and again. I opted out of the thread after it had gone on too long.

With that said, and the fact that I respect your pragmatism - I will say this about brifters (in my experience) - they are most definitely a game changer! I purchased a set of Dura Ace 7700/7703 (3x9) triple shifters new for $299 about 15 years ago. I set them up myself. They weren’t perfect when I first set them up. They seemed odd to me. The sideways wiggle of the brake lever was odd. He ease with which you could click through the cassette took some getting used to. The front derailleur shifting with the triple was odd and I lacked the insight at the time to understand the finer points of trim clicks and how to verify correct cable tesnsion and cable set up. But I do now. Shimano produces fantastic products as far as I’m concerned. The other STI bike I have ridden is a Dura Ace 7800 2x10 drivetrain that is also very nice - this I got used. The clicks on the front are a bit hard but the rear is like butter.

Your initial reaction about how “cheesy, fragile and weird” they felt is understandable I guess - cheesy because the shifters were used and not working properly, fragile since they were failing, and weird because you weren’t used to them. The memory of what shifting type you came up with is hard to break. It took me several years for brifter to start to feel natural. Consider yourself lucky that you learned road bike shifting the old way and have so many options. I would advise you to give brifters a second chance though. The Dura Ace 7700 series that I have are like little Swiss watches - very high quality. Unfortunately new old stock 7700 nine speed shifters and derailleurs have become scarce. It might be a better bet to go all in on one of your used frames so long as it has 130mm (modern road bike standard) and build it up with a modern gruppo of your choice. You could go Campy or Shimano at whatever price point you chose. Shimano 105 7000 series 11 speed or Ultegra 8000 series 11 speed parts are a bit of a bargain for how good they are from what I have heard. Pick either the Della Santa or the Giordana for the brifter bike and build the other with the old school shifting. Alternate both for a year, then report back in one year how you like brifters (just a suggestion). No reason to dig your heels in and disrespect a perfectly valid format -cheers!