I can appreciate your concern but I think you may be worrying a lite too much about what could happen. Dosers have been used for years, by myself also, and very rarely does something go wrong that regular maintenance shouldn't solve. Yeah they can get plugged, bit if you keep an eye on them and maybe every once in a while flush the lines with some RO water then all should be fine. You could even replace the lines if needed every few months (they cost about a buck a foot).
Also,if anything were to go wrong with your dosers you would notice it in your levels, or your corals behaviour.
A doser may cost you $90 but that's a small price to pay for mixing a gallon of chemicals once a month and having all the equipment hidden away somewhere versus being hanging from your light etc.
I'm not discounting your ideas completely, but with all the hassle of mixing each time, and then hanging up a drip line and worrying if it clogs and then constantly rinsing it, I'd buy a doser each year rather than mess around like that.
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