Political sovereignty over their own communities, so far as I know, was never an issue for the EE Jews perhaps because, as you point out, they already enjoyed a degree of local autonomy.
[WS:] That, and also a strong tendency toward assimilation. Polish intelligentsia would be a much smaller bunch if it were not for the Polish Jews. Ditto for Russia.
As I understand, immigration to Palestine was not very popular among EE Jews around the turn of the century - Argentina was a more popular destination. It was, however, an idea espoused by the Polish nationalist right as the means of "solving the Jewish question."
As to the post Holocaust immigration, the division was more or less along political orientation, according to an empirical study carried at that time (http://www.bookgallery.co.il/content/english/static/book11132.asp). Those with left-leaning views tended to stay and assimilate, others tended to emigrate. The Kielce pogrom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kielce_pogrom, however, heavily tipped the balance toward emigration. The second post WW2 exodus occurred in the aftermath of the 1968 student rebellion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Polish_political_crisis , as the government used anti-Semitism to discredit many prominent intellectuals who supported the protesters.
PS. I agree with the rest of your posting.
Wojtek