To divisi, or not to divisi?

I disagree. What you have shown makes perfect sense.

  1. You can put 2 parts on one stave in different voices (but don’t cross them much) - players will interpret as divisi, but to be clear add div. and unis. text. If the rhythm is the same, you can use chordal notation and mark it div.
  2. If they cross a lot, or are very different rhythmically, use divisi on separate staves.
  3. For special divisions (solo + the rest, back desk + the rest etc.) use a custom division on separate staves.

There was an interesting thread on string divisi