You guys nailed it.

This one was harder to find than big names like NextGEN, but it was well-worth the search.

After deleting a few gallery plugins I didn’t like using, and researching dozens more, no plugin (that I could see) comes close to functioning exactly like WordPress than Foo.

In my opinion, this plugin retains exactly what you need, removes what you don’t and keeps the workflow super-streamlined. It seems very integrated with WordPress, rather than competing against it.