It's funny that you've shared all that, because since last posting on this thread, I've been watching some free lesson from Pebber Brown, who really stresses Classical technique. Which dictates that your fingers should not move away from the strings very far at all, and they should only move when they have to.
So I started playing really slow and forcing my pinky to stay down. Then I started playing this lick I've been playing over and over again when working on my speed, and it already sounds cleaner when I'm playing at my fastest! So I guess I was wrong in a way, it was just hard to accept that I had a bad habit I needed to break!
I noticed that it's easier to keep my pinky down when I focus on keeping it hooked instead of flat. I've been following these instructions:
http://www.pbguitarstudio.com/pdf_files/GUITAR_PDF/Classical_Form.pdf
Do they look like they're on point to you (the 12 rules of technique)?