That's a pretty good list Blain and better than I could do. I think that I am in the camp that just does what comes next and what comes next can vary widely.... perhaps that's the problem..
What I wanted to add to your very good list though is this: prior to any new guitar that I build I get out all of the materials and lean them on a wall on a bench in my shop and look at them for a couple of weeks. I try to do this before I am done building the current guitar so no time gets wasted.... If after a bit it looks like a guitar screaming to be built we try to make it happen. If something looks wrong say the bindings don't match in reality as well as they did in my vision others get laid out and looked at. I guess that for me it's a visualization process. Then I dive in.