Everyone seems to go through the same questions when getting a tripod. There are no standards, so the you have to search through the quagmire of spec's and decide which to believe. One general comment: If a company has a good reputation... they did not get that reputation by inflating the spec's and not following through. You have hit on some good choices. RRS and Gitzo are top of the line and the cost is commensurate. However, I have not heard of to many complaints about those. The Induro and Manfrotto also have a good reputation, but the costs are less.

Neuro use to have a Manfrotto, and used to recommend that until he bought the RSS when he got the 600mm lens. There are many others that seem to be happy with them.

I have the Induro and like it a lot. They are not cheaply built, and are very sturdy. I have the larger CT414 which has four section legs. I usually only extend three section (and a few inches of the fourth) unless on a hill or when my 100-400mm is pointed upward (at birds usually) and I do not want to bend over to look into the eye piece. In other words, I like the extra hieght. If you find a lower cost high end Gitzo or RSS, then they tend to be shorter... that was not acceptable to me. The Induro CT313 would probably be perfectly fine as far as weight rating goes, and it would be a bit lighter (I still would not give up my CT414 though). Another consideration is whether you can tear down the legs easily for cleaning. The Induro is easy to tear down and clean if I get into sand at the beach and people near oceans can tear down to flush the salt out. Neuro has said in the past that the RSS tears down for cleaning as well.

Pat