If I wanted great built quality & great sensor I would choose the G400.
The newer versions don't have prediction afaik.

I'm a claw-gripper, too and the g400 is ok with my type of claw grip but if you want to know that a mouse fits your grip there is no better way than trying it in some electronics store.
Or you could get the mice from amazon and ship them back

I'm curious, what DA did you have and how did it break exactly?

1. Version doesn't matter.
2. RAGEquit?

.

If you take all of the criteria into account (except braided cable), Microsoft WheelMouse Optical 1.1(a) and Microsoft Intellimouse 1.1a which comes to my mind, if you can accept the fact that you're "only" able to use 400 cpi (which is more than enough in my opinion).

Similar shape, very good build quality (I mean, they're made for eternity), no angle snapping, perfectly works without drivers, stable 500 / 1000 Hz (but this value is also dependent on your motherboard). And really cheap. WMO is around 15 $, IM 1.1a is around 25 $ on eBay.

You can find premium versions of IM 1.1a in different colors (looks awesome IMHO - SteelSeries and Zowie-versions), but they're naturally a bit more expensive.


Dimensions:
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Microsoft WheelMouse Optical 1.1a : 124 x 66,6 x 39,6 mm, 79 g, 3 button, 400 cpi
Microsoft Intellimouse 1.1a: 126 x 68,1 x 39,3 mm, 86,4 g, 5 button, 400 cpi

The sensor is identical (so as in the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0), the good old STMicroelectronics OS MLT 04.

On a side note, you really should raise the polling rate to 500 Hz, because from this value, the sensor's perfect control goes up from 1,00 m/s to 1,55 m/s, due to the 8 bit data path.
You can experience negative acceleration from the maximum perfect control to the malfunction rate (so between 1,55 m/s and 2,00 m/s), but this should be a concern just in case of EXTREMELY low sensitivites.

They have standard plastic feet, so some kind of quality-hyperglide is recommended.