You sound like an engineer....
Since you want to keep your rear axle, toss a truss on the 35 and call it good, the housing is real weak and even heavy loads will bend it. Between a truss and the upgraded axles and ARB it should be pretty reliable. I personally ran a 35 for a couple years on 33's and it held up very well, I did break 1 axle shaft but I think I wheeled it pretty hard (not stupid, just hard). But with my first hand experience with them, I wouldn't even consider it for your application. I also think the nv3500 is a downgrade to the AX15, on paper it looks alot better but i've seen to many issues with them, they are noisy, not assembled well from the factory and don't shift as nice... Seems like a huge waste of money for no real upgrade, a nv4500 hell yeah...
I would do (and did do) an 8.8 over anything else. Have you seen an 8.8? The make a D35 or D44 look like a toothpick. The axle tubes are much larger. Yes it is a C-clip axle, but your looking at 1.5" dia 31 spline axle shafts. You are not going to break those. And they are cheap, and easy to slap into a YJ!
I have a TJ that I setup for rock crawling and being trailered around, I moved up to a D70 rear axle, a 3/4t heavy duty high pinion D44 front with alloy shaft. Both axles are uncut full width and running 37x13.50r17 tires. I am now setting it up for light expo work, a week or less, under 1500 miles or so (but still be able to rock crawl). I don't really enjoy being out much longer than that. Unloaded i'm right around 4800lbs. And the lift and bigger tires does not make it more tippy, this thing sticks to where ever you point it. I can pull as high as 15 mpg on the highway, off road it settles around 13 or so depending on how had the wheeling is. If I were to do it again, I would keep it low and build more of a traditional expo rig but i'm working with what I have. A positive note tho, my rock crawling upgrades make for a great performing and damn near indestructable expo rig.