Langston, I was going to suggest you include the L'Acoustic Kudo, and Meyer Mica, but if the Vertec is out the running on price, my guess is that the Kudo and the Meyer Mica will be as well. The Kudo has the advantage of adjustable horizontal coverage, although I don't know anyone who has actually used them yet. Past experience with L'Acoustic products bodes well.
How many boxes in the EV prediction to get 450' of coverage!!!? That seems highly unlikely. I have used a lot of V-DOSC, dv-DOSC, Vertec 4889, 4887, and Meyer M2D arrays, and I have not seen any of them give coverage that far. I have worked a concert where they had arrays of 20 V-DOSC per array, that covered that far outside at Giants Stadium, and I assume arrays that large of Vertec could do the same, but indoors with arrays of 8 or 10 mid sized boxes it ain't gonna happen.
Your note about having the groups of 4 array elements pre-pinned in the box is a concern. My experience with dv-DOSC, which are packaged this way, is that it is too difficult to get them back in the boxes still pinned. In any case, the rear pins are removed so the boxes are flat in the case. The rear pins are added as the motor takes the array up. The dv's are only 72 pounds, and 3 per case. I assume getting 4 per case will be even harder with them pinned. I think EAW has plans for a speaker dolly to take 4 boxes vertically, which is a whole lot easier to rig and un-rig. Arrays with good flying hardware go together pretty quickly and easily. I don't think you need to be that concerned about having them pre-pinned.
Good luck with your search.
Mac