Now, I may be "barking up the wrong tree" with this switcher vs linear matter, but, given a few moments to deal with it, I will try to learn whether there's a consistent difference.

Perhaps, if there's sufficient advantage to using the switcher, then the reset IC is not too high a price. So far, however, I've found that the switcher costs more than a comparable linear. That would make the cost figure move the wrong direction.

Now, as for the reset circuit ... before there were Philips and Siemens, and God knows who else, Intel made the 805x-series, and their recommended circuits required only an 8.2k-ohm 5% resistor pulling down the reset pin, and a 10 uF cap from RESET to Vcc, across which one might place a pushbutton and a reverse-biased diode.

AMD, Philips, Siemens, and others wouldn't have taken up the 805x if this series hadn't been wildly successful, which it certainly was. Why, I would ask, is the RC reset circuit so unreliable today, when it was so dependable for years and years when Intel was the only source? If the reset circuit was so unreliable as it apparently is today, why haven't manufacturers done what DALLAS did, and incorporated the reset/supervisor in the chip?

RE