I think what you are doing is really super! I owned bicycle stores in San Diego, which gave me exposure to a lot of different handlebar types. At some point I discovered the swept back Wald 395 bars, I believe. I ended up building a frame with those swept back bars in mind, they definitely will help with reducing hand pressure. With the Wald bars, the diameter is such that putting trigger shifters or grip shift is in the cards. Since hand pressure is your enemy/ something you are trying to minimize, I would recommend "ergo" grips with locking rings on the end, so they can't rotate.