So, I tried again with the alternate mountains technique. I posted it over in the Regional Map discussion forum, but thought I would also post it here in case anyone's been interested in seeing where I'm going with it.

I fixed the mountains (got rid of the inverted ridge), also sharpened them this time (no flat tops), and also fixed the forest. I put in three color layers for the forest (first one Normal mode, second one Grain Merge Mode, third Overlay--slightly different color definition in each layer), did one bumpmap for overall texture, and another bumpmap to bevel the forest (make it pop out more) around the mountains.

Here's the result, and it's what I'll be going forward with as I finish the tutorial:
Xamel_Region_Methd2_Mnt2.jpg