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...they were nice bikes at the time. For 600 bucks here (and NorCal is considered a higher priced area for used steel bikes), I can buy something significantly more upscale. That's the lower threshold for some of the decent Italian stuff here. And over the winter, I've seen at least one Paramount in that price range (admittedly not pristine, but not that bad). Almost everything from before the late 70's/80's will have tyre clearance and most of them will have fender eyelets (although some of the full race Italian stuff might not).
Slacker geometry is often encountered in the frames designed and sold in that era as "touring", although if you can go back to the early 70's/60's almost everything will seem pretty slack. If you want a good, all around bike for your purposes that usually flies under the radar in terms of pricing, the Voyageur series from Schwinn (especially the earlier ones) are a good bet. But there are many, many others floating around. Try a search of the local CL for "touring" in bikes.