I'd host ya myself, except this is Jeremy's "house" and I definitely watch what my clients are "into".
Self-hosting is an alternative.
Keeping your dot.com registered is prudent, but a "site" can live anywhere.
Even with Poor Man's DNS, you could build Up|out a site in Virtualbox. Take an extra step to allow the world to see it, but that is an aspect that has not been stipulated?

Other than what you want/don't want I haven't seen anything that isn't simple or basic.
Perhaps you are overwhelmed or haven't given the specifics any "air time"?

Will there be "Constitutional Lawyers" Involved?

PFB

No issue, let us know when you get something good.

No.

What price per month is acceptable for hosting so that it is considered inexpensive?

There's no answer to that question...what do YOU consider 'inexpensive' and what do you expect to get for that money?

If you plan on 100,000 visitors per day, with secure transactions/payments, databases, etc., then what is 'inexpensive' will differ greatly from a site with 10 static HTML pages and 100 visitors a month. Your question is like asking, "how high is up?"

Question was answered for me some time ago. Would mark this thread as [Solved], but that doesn't seem to be an option in the General forum.

You can install vps @ USD 3 to 5 per month and install vestacp.
You will have full control