I'm embarrassed even posting in this thread anymore. Finally pulled the trigger on some lighting for the basement. I couldn't get everything I hoped for, but I think we ended up with a pretty good compromise.

FlatMAX™ Edge Lit LED 2x2 Panel

We got the 5000K panels. I would have liked higher CRI.

At first we took home some can lighting, but with the ceiling being so low, the light didn't have any space in which to spread out, so it ended up being very focused in spots in the floor. Thankfully, it wasn't too late to cancel the order, and a second trip to the store had us looking at these panels. They seemed perfect for evenly distributed output, with the added benefit of being much less labor-intensive (no cutting out for the cans). Also easier to work with than other fixtures we were considering, since they're only 2" deep, where everything else was around 3.5" and more, which is problematic because of how little space there is between the ceiling grid and the floor joists above. 2" meant pain-free slipping in of the panels.

I hadn't kept up on LED lighting, but it seems like they've come a long way, and I'm sure in another 10 years it will be that much better. I'm sure higher CRI at 5000K will be a lot more common by then. In the meantime, I think this will work fine.

In other news, I let the hosting of my website expire, so now none of my photos and other media files I've linked to are available. I'll have to look into image hosting services this weekend and post some new pics, even if there isn't much different than the last batch. I posted a couple of pictures of the lighting on Facebook, for those of you who are my friends on there.