Wow, you live in a rough world since probably 95% of all production cars use sliding calipers.=P~ While they may not be the best from an engineering only basis, they (as a general rule) hold up really well in all kinds of bad weather & are the cheapest to build. Not sure why you would say they are high maintenance, generally just change the fluid once in a while, keep the pins lubed & you're good to go.
Lucky you live in so-cal, our cars in the northeast get a continuous salt bath for 4 months out of the year. I like the Wilwood setup a lot for reasons mentioned & use them on my '65 but would never consider them for a daily driver for corrosion issues.
If you think the mentioned iron calipers are heavy, you should check out the old Budd calipers used on 66-68 C-bodies, they must weigh 10 lbs. a piece.