I haven't read your thread, but Did you install the column grid module?
(See free add-ons section).
Did you then activate it in the admin section?
I too have clients who are on big ego trips and don't see the logic of effective e-commerce.
I tell them to look at the websites of the big online retailers. ALL of these guys have a Boot-In-The-Face policy when it comes to product info. That is the ONLY reason why customers are there - to see the products.
Additionally, if it takes a customer 3 mouse clicks to get to product info on your site - and just 2 mouse clicks on your competitor's site, your competitor is already 33% MORE EFFICIENT than you are.
Unlike bricks-and-mortar shops - where it's often a big mission to travel to competitive outlets, so people just spend where they go first - on the web it's different...
I tell my clients to click their mouse button - just to see how quick, easy and insignificant this simple action is...
... yet it is all an online customer needs to do to leave your shop to get to the competition!