In an attempt to resolve the steering play, I installed Dinan monoballs on my front thrust arms. There is still a 1" spot that takes significantly less effort and makes the car move significantly less either direction at the center. There is still a distinct point 1/2" either direction that the steering hefts up and more movement happens. Monoball bearings did not remove this attribute but I do believe they cut this feeling by about 50%.
On the plus side, I can actually tell what the front wheels are doing for the first time since buying this car while driving. A minimal about of (still comfortable) road feel and vibrations now come through the steering wheel. I can place the wheel exactly where I want to in a turn and I now know what's going to happen. The car is significantly more predictable with much better road feel.
I've uploaded two videos below.
Video 1 shows the same steering wheel movement side to side. However, you can see the camera moving more than the original video because despite this still being a 1" spot in the steering where there is less road feel and less initial turn in, the steering wheel causes more movement to happen here.
Video 2 shows what happens when I push the steering wheel to the very edge of that 1" spot in the middle that I previously called a dead spot, but can be more accurately called a spot that totally lacks road feel. It will quickly move into the lane next to me where before it was much lazier making this move.
I feel like this modification wasn't drastic at the end of the day. Instead of getting in and going "is this even my car?" like coilovers would do, it's more of a mod where if someone took my car, didn't tell me about the mod, then gave it back, I'd be driving home thinking "that's weird, was the steering always this good?"
It's certainly not steering from BMW's glory days, but it made a notable improvement on what I feel is the car's weakest point.