I know it sounds crazy, but you are describing Ateres very much! Did you ever look into it? All areas you mentioned, teachers being approachable, the academics, and the girls are really exactly Ateres!
I won’t say that I know about Afikei Torah and Darchei Binah because I don’t. I know there was a thread about Afikei Torah a little while ago… Darchei Binah I know produces wonderful girls! Just don’t know much about the two.
I applied and got into Meohr and was extremely close to going, but then ended up deciding to go to Ateres for although they are both great places I felt Ateres would bring to the place I really wanted to be. So I do know about meohr because I have done a lot of research.
Bottom line is, they are going through a much needed change this year. It came to the point where although the school, teachers, and classes were out of this world, their crowd of girls was becoming lower and lower on the Bais Yaakov scale. So you may not be looking for a real Bais Yaakov seminary which is more then fine, but just explaining a main difference between that and Ateres, and that was a big part of the reason I didn’t end up going. I did go a bunch of times, and I found it to be more in towny for sure! There were a lot of girls doing a lot of things that the school was not impressed with, and many were dressing in ways that were not ok. They did not have a uniform. This year I know a lot of rules changed, and that they now have the dress code that all the other Bais Yaakov seminaries have. The teachers and classes are really great though! They only have midterms and finals, but do have reports and other assigments in the middle of the year. They have a lot of class. I know that I thought I had a lot compared to a lot of seminaries we had 3 night classes per week, but I believe Meohr has even more. The principal Rabbi Greenwald is supposed to be the most incredible person! I really enjoyed my interview with him immensely. I hope this helped you a little bit, but I really think you should look into Ateres as well, and not just because I went there! It sounds exactly like you are describing you want! I wrote a lot about it on the other seminary thread so feel free to read it. Also I think Meohr was the number one seminary that most of the Ateres girls had applied to as well! So wherever you decide on for real they are both wonderful and very special places and there are plenty others out there too, but I think you should look specifically at these two! Good Luck, and may it all go smoothly!