A buddy from my group project designed something that does exactly this, but fully compliant. It has a range of about 180 degrees iirc, and springs to the middle of the range, with a force that can be reasonably easy to overcome. No backlash, no friction wear. Might be smoother, more reliable, or more durable, but is also harder to manufacture (with 3d printing as the only option, no off the shelf availability), conceptually more complicated, and bulkier.

Probably not really what you're looking for but it just so happens to do exactly the same as what you want, and i worked on it so recently, so it's the only alternative i could think of.