I really appreciate all your responses. Some answers and questions:

1. I intend to full-load multiple week touring with this bike. I've generally heard that that requires 50-80 lbs of equipment on the bike, which made me think I'd want to be able to carry up to about 30 lbs up front and the remaining 40-50 on back. It sounds like the distribution I"m going for should be more like 20 front, 50-60 back?

2. I haven't ridden the bike loaded yet, but unloaded it feels very soft for an alloy frame, even slightly comfier than my other old steel frame road bike.

Based on comments, I think my current plan is to wait on getting a new fork until I have given this bike a solid tour with a u-loop front rack. Until then, it sounds like there's no guarantee of how worthwhile a difference a new fork w braze-ons would make.