And here it is!
So I ordered the Hargett Performance 901 shifter (designed for a 911). It's going to need modifying to fit a Beetle, and I suspect substantially more modifying to make it fit the way I want/envision it. But it ticks all the boxes for improving the shifting, at least on paper. Will be a few weeks until I can get to installing it, which is going to kill me. I'm off to Edmonton on the weekend, and this is more then a few evening's job!
-Dave