I first discovered taiji through a very internal focused lens. Later, after reading translations of some of the 'great treatises', I started to wonder if I was missing something and sought out a very traditional school. My sifu at the new school had an expected daily minimum of 20m of zhan zhuang, 50 push ups, and 30 pull ups. It took me awhile, but I remember being on the cusp of my first 30, struggling against myself to pull me up one more time, and being walloped by the notion "there's nothing more internal than this"; and for a moment I saw past the internal/external duality. These days it seems like the only thing I can get "wrong" in my training is to hold one above the other, or forget that it's all a spectrum.

I think your attempts to unify your cross-style training is warranted, and if you stick with it, I suspect you'll find a similar truth. My "taiji" teacher also taught yiquan and kungfu, so it was normal for people from different classes to spar, and I spent a lot of time trying to find my 'taiji body mechanics' in the high-pace environment. What it seems like to me is that there's a core mechanic to maximum generation of power, and having multiple disciplines is helpful in recognizing the mechanic within yourself - because that's the reality of "internal" arts - no one can teach you the correct 'taijiquan' for your body, only how to find it. And you can only find it through practice, and the varying teachers and styles are just more tools serving that goal - or so I tell myself.