Thank you! My opinion of Edmund is similar to yours. I feel like his essential character is revealed through those years of steady kindness, and even as foolish as he through so much of the book, he's still the same guy underneath it. And despite his preoccupation with Mary, his love for Fanny never flags or wavers.
Yeah, I didn't want him to propose, I really didn't, but in the circumstances it was inevitable. Now he will have to deal with the consequences of his blindness in a much more complicated fashion than in canon. As you say, the poor man only got an hour of happiness!
There was one point I considered calling this story "The Disillusionment of Edmund."
Thank you!