I like this post. There are no "right" or "wrong" answers here. I can certainly appreciate your affinity to your Loki Max. Tailoring the sound to your liking, effortlessly, and on demand checks a lot of boxes in the plus column.
Klipsch speakers are high on my list of speakers that actually deliver what they promise. I’m quite familiar with Klipsch speakers (I have a mono K’Horn in my loft built in 1958), and have been providing performance modifications to Klipsch speakers for several decades. We recently completed what we refer to as a Level II upgrade on a pair of Forte IIIs. At this level, we focus on keeping the speaker "All Klipsch" with all factory-installed crossover components, drivers and input terminals remaining intact. Dampening horn bodies and speaker frames (including passive radiator), replacing factory cabling with "real" speaker cables, and eliminating spade/lug connections with direct silver solder connections offers tremendous bang for the buck in sonic improvements.
I’’ll save you labor pains and just give you the baby: If you heard a pair of these side by side compared to a pair factory-stock Forte IIIs, I sincerely hope you have on a pair of Depends when you listen for the first time. If taken to a competent shop, expect to pay $700-$800 fo have this work done. (Assuming $200-$300 of the budget for competent speaker cables). If you’re handy with a soldering station, you can do the work yourself. Or, at the very least, a DYI with $20 worth of Dynamat and a couple of hours applying the material in the right places will pay sonic dividends many times the investment.
I am 100% in support of your application of the EQ in your environment. I would also consider (for about half the price of the investment you have in the EQ) extracting a new level of detail, transparency, warmth, imaging, increased dynamic range and less fatigue than you thought possible from your Fortes. You’ve got "big boy stuff" delivering the energy to the Fortes. It’s time to consider a modest investment in a very substantial sonic improvement.
And, I promise, you’ll like your EQ even more than you do now.