I just saw samples today of Wayne Dalton series 9800 (I think) - looks like wood-- made with a fiber glass skin

Assuming you are referring to the Ranch House collection by Overhead Door, we have had the series #147 for a couple of years now. The door is very nice and, as long as you apply stain once a year, not too difficult to maintain. However, in our area snow has built up outside of our door causing water to seep into the garage when it melted. As a result we recently purchased and installed plastic strips (will paint to match the trim color on the building) to seal around the top and sides of the door and prevent water seepage. Since they will blend in with the trim around the door, the strips won't noticably detract from the appearance of the door. We also had to relocate the hardware on the door because the sealing strips covered the ends of the metal faux hinges. We also replaced the thin rubber gasket on the bottom of the door with a p-trap type rubber seal and attached a rubber threshhold to the garage floor for good measure. We have the same type of sealing system around the steel doors on another garage, so I'm not suggesting the water problem is specific to wood doors. I just want you to know there may be gaps around your door once it is installed and, depending on your climate, you may have to install some type of seals to keep the weather out.

I'd wonder about what's causing that much movement in your apron. Just about any remedy to the warm weather gap will make the sticking problem worse in the winter. It sounds like frost heave under a slab which was not done correctly.

I SAY I want wood doors, but ... Can anyone convince me one way or the other about aluminum? I think I can get one in aluminum for about $500 cheaper. My requirements are - 1) Paint ANY color I want (even if that means black some years down in the future; it's south facing), and not have to jump through hoops to paint it thus negating any upfront cost savings 2) smooth, don't like the look of the fake wood grain, and the aluminum one is smooth 3) durability (not expecting kids to be playing ball against the surface, nor would I really expect anyone to accidentally hit it with their car (you'd have to be really blind that there's not a garage door in front of you), but what if someone bumps up against it? Is it going to show all that immediately? (course, it'd only be me that notices it, just like I happen to now notice that there are a couple of dents in the gutters; maybe them getting cleaned off and painted will make the obviousness of them go away?) Of course, not having to deal with wood rot would be nice... I'm not totally concerned about having to get an extra heavy duty garage door opener or springs. Its only a single car width. OK, so as I look at the picture of the aluminum one (it's Martin Door, Pinnacle), and I drove by and looked at one installed, I realize what I didn't like about it was that the back "panels" that are the vertical looking part seem to really stand out as separate pieces from panel to panel (panel used here to mean the 3 or 4 separate horizontal pieces that go up and down the roller track), rather than having the look of almost a one piece solid door from way back before garage door openers and tracks were invented. It's like they bow out towards the middle of the panel. :-(