Well, I decided to do something stupid.
I still had Amex points leftover after getting the new phone, and they were still doing 25% off points, so I used my last remaining points plus $300 and got the Fenix 5X Plus.
I've had it for a little over a week, and I gotta say, this thing is awesome. I've been wearing it pretty much 24/7 with all the sensors active, and the physiological data is off the hook.
I think I might still be using only 25% of the features as I keep digging in and finding more stuff.
I'm doing my annual tactical trout assault in the Eastern Sierra next week, which always includes one of those gnarly day hikes I post here, so I'll be able to checkout the pulse Ox sensor as I should be doing a good bit of >12K' hiking.
Otherwise the battery life is awesome. I've only charged it once so far, and that's after constantly playing with the features plus running with GPS active. Also I was at first afraid that it would be some ginormous stupid looking thing on my wrist based on the pictures I've seen on reviewers' wrists, but they must all be noodle armed NYC boys or something. I only have average sized wrists and it looks no different than my dive watch on my wrist. Doesn't stand out at all.
Also the generic smart watch features are neat - getting texts and other notifications on the watch. I find them quite legible, even for my aging eyes. About the only negative so far is that the display is a little dark when indoors. I can read the time and other larger text fine, but if I want to see some of the smaller text on the watch face I chose (which to be fair, is kinda on data overload), I need to do the backlight. Surprisingly, in direct sunlight the watchface is incredibly bright and easy to read - no washing out from the bright sun or anything.
I've been tending to be anti-tech Luddite since I retired, not really following new tech trends, but this watch definitely has me back into full nerd mode.