Don,
Lots of questions and I don't have many answers. Wheaten and blue wheaten are a couple varieties I've given up in both bantams and LF. I don't think we want any markings on the chick's backs, just on the head.
Maybe the intensity of this small line relates to the black in female's tails, male's muffs, etc...Just another question.
The "balancing" and "working against each other" are thoughts some others have had too. Barbara Campbell (and others of us) would concentrate on a color/pattern characteristic and see improvement while another area's color/pattern would go down hill.
I know Mike always preferred the lighter creamy top females and I agree they look best, but or many years I've wondered if that is what the natural color should be when breeding for proper colored/patterned males. I don't double mate and have always felt it just isn't natural to have to do that to get properly colored males and females of the same variety. In those cases I believe the Standard is wrong and should be changed to reflect the "natural" colors/patterns that "pure" single mating produces. Ken Aho is a well known breeder of partridge variety chickens. When I asked if double mating was necessary to produce proper colored/patterned males and females, he said he doesn't do it and breeds for the proper color/pattern on females. I believe that type of breeding plan should be used with wheatens, but the other way around. Breed for the proper color/pattern on males first while also concentrating on black tailed females. Let the breeding determine the shade of wheaten on the females and don't worry too much about some hackle striping...maybe it is supposed to be there with eWh (dominate wheaten). If the stiping is from a modifying gene it seems like we would have eliminated it by now. If another breed produces proper colored/patterned wheatens (the same Standard as Ameraucanas) without double mating then it can be done and maybe some crossbreeding would be appropriate.