The verdict!!! (I think)
I am going to place an order for a Loki 38/240 system later today. I went with 38 mm because I figure that I can fly a ton of L1 motors at this size, and I went with Loki because the hazmat fees would eat up any savings that I got from a certification special from AT or CTI. I'll probably take advantage of a certification special for a 54 mm case when I go for L2, because hazmat will be a necessary evil by then.
For the rocket itself, I think I want a Stealth by Binder Design. While I want this rocket to be a workhorse that I can use to learn HPR, I want to love the design too. And those BD designs are just to cool too pass up. Very close runners-up are BD's Excel with dual deploy and and the HyperLOC 300. I like both of these because they have dual deploy, but I figure that I can upgrade the Stealth to DD when I'm ready. Whatever kit I go with, I'll get a 54 mm motor mount, so I can fly the 38 mm engines with an adaptor at my home field, which has a low ceiling and a relatively small field, but then give it more power when I visit MMMS (hoping to go up there in November).
Thanks so much for all of your input. Without this thread, I wouldn't have even considered Binder Design, GLR or MAC. And I wouldn't have known where to start with my choice of engines. Thanks to you guys, my wish list has exploded over the past week. I think I can keep the Stealth + the 38/240 + plus a few reloads near my budget for the short term, but for the long term, all bets are off.