Some real horror stories in there! It sounds like the "delay valve" in
that slave cylinder is at least partly to blame. What a crock -- I've
driven stick-shift cars that got 100,000+ miles out of the clutch, and
then only the clutch disc itself would be worn.  (Though if you're
going to go to the trouble of replacing that, SOP is to also replace
the pressure plate and throwout bearing, at least.) The stories of
flywheel failure are particularly troubling, I've *never* had to
replace a flywheel, at worst I've seen them need to be resurfaced and
they frequently don't even need that unless the clutch disc wears down
to the rivets. I'm sure glad our '06 Sonata has the automatic
transmission, that they pretty much have to fix if it breaks!!