Why do you say the pump was junk? Wobbling on the shaft?
How you describe the clutch is just how my old one worked. It seemed to have some resistance initially, but after turning it by hand a bit, the resistance went to almost zero. Theoretically that could be a feature because it's better to have no fan at all until the engine warms up, but it's pretty hard to find any documented numbers of how much resistance there should be at various temperatures. Perhaps it's a sign fluid loss.
The water pump was leaking badly from the lower weep hole and once i had it out, the shaft has a just a tad bit of side play and the bearing sounds like garbage. The impeller looks good though, no rot or wear.
The fan clutch just feels totally inconsistent. It has a dead spot when spinning it. I ordered a replacement to compare. I'm not big on finding out the hard way.