From address on case emails

[thunksalot]

I'm setting up cases for my organization.  It appears to me that there are two ways to send an email reply to a customer that contacts us via Email-to-Case.  Each of the methods appears to have advantages and disadvantages.  I'd like to simplify things for my staff so that there is only one method that works well in every case.  Basically, I think I can do that by hiding either the "Activity History" related list or the "Emails" related list.  If anyone can help confirm my understanding or offer an alternative direction, I'd appreciate it because right now the multiplicity of options is confusing me and my staff.

Method 1)  "Send An Email" button in Activity History related list

PROS: this is the same method for sending emails to Contacts elsewhere in SF, so no new training is needed; this related list also has the "Log A Call" button

CONS: the email thread is not pulled into the Body of the message;  no simple way to "reply-all"; BCCs the sender by default;  uses the contact's "preferred" email address in the To field of the reply rather than the email address they used when submitting their case (for example, xyz@domain.com will be used if that is the primary address in their Contact record, even if they sent thieir case email from xyz@anothercomain.com); 

Method 2)  "Reply" or "To All" links in Emails related list

PROS: the email thread is pulled into the Body of the message;  replies are always sent to the right address (the one the customer used in their initial email); 

CONS: BCCs the sender by default; doesn't have the Log A Call button 

I realize a number of the CONS can be fixed by careful crafting of templates and/or by hacking sf urls, but before I go to that trouble, I feel like I should try to reduce the size of my problem by getting rid of one of the two options for sending case email replies.

-Sam