Gordy,
The application you have is, in general, the kind of work I do most, and I agree with Gerald about brazing, as well as Bill's remarks about product design.
Few people have ever noticed the brazed joint on carbide router or saw blades, but the carbide is brazed on nevertheless... properly executed brazed connetions will indeed be strong enough for you and can be inconspicuous. With normal lighting im my shop I can see well enough through a shade 5 spectacle that "bearings" as you mentioned are not an issue (specifically I use a shade5 grinders flip-up full face shield in front of corrective safety glasses)
If yu have the heat in your shop its no investment; if you dont have oxyfuel and you have a metal shop you'll be glad you got it.
Where complex product design makes brazing impractical I'd side with Bill, but it leaves you to your own devices to get your bearings before the weld is over. His point about product design is quite valid no matter how yu intend to fabricate it; it must be designed for the process you plan to employ.
Plug welds are quite secure and easy to create although under totally ideal conditions a brazed joint might be just a little faster after considering the clean-up grinding of the plug weld.
Can you be more specific about the kinds of problems you had with flux-core? I think we're just presuming it's the asthetics of the weld.
Regards
d