Alright, so what I do (I haven't read the thread completely) but I've done this over a few batches now with some great results. My efficiency sticks between 77% and 80% for the most part, but I've had 85% with a different recipe before. Anyway, what I do is simple:
1. Mash in bag in little water (relatively thick mash).
2. Squeeze the crap out of the bag. I put the bag in a colander over the kettle and let the wort drip down until it slows down, then I squeeze. In fact, I compress the bag. I put the colander in a big bowl, and squeeze from the top with another big bowl. This forces out a lot of wort, and leave the grain bag pretty dry.
3. Then I dunk the grain bag in a different container with very hot water. Like, 175°F or thereabouts. There's also a lot of water, and it's here where I make up my boil volume. I then stir the crap out of the grains in the bag as well to "wash" the malts properly, and let it sit for another 20 minutes or so.
4. After the wait, I again lift out the bag, spin it a bit to "squeeze" that way, in the colander and the colander is placed over the wort again. Wait until it stops dripping and then I do the two-bowl squeeze again.
This process gets me a pretty good efficiency. I have to add I've got a pleb palate, so it's very possible that I'm not picking up astringency or whatever you get from doing the squeeze thing, but my beers are good enough for me.
I also enjoy the efficiency. It's great. Without squeezing TOO much, I've had a consistent 77% efficiency for the past 5 identical brews I did, so it's a nice and predictable process at this stage.
EDIT: My wort is cloudy as hell, and I don't use kettle finings in my boil. I do no-chill cubing and end up pitching everything into the fermenter anyway. I'll be able to give updates on the clarity once I've done some more testing with it personally, and I'm thinking it's a great idea to do one with Irish moss and one without, then ferment them both and do a comparison sans gelatin with both, side-by-side. I've got two vessels, maybe a small-batch test is in order...