A Catholic by Any Other Name... Is Still a Catholic?

It seems I can't even "convert" within Catholicism from Novus Ordo to Tridentine Mass without some level of controversy.  

Apparently, the most hard-core TLMers outright reject the NO as invalid.  Even those who don't often do not embrace various devotions that I'm familiar with, like the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, or the Divine Mercy Chaplet, or even papal encyclicals like Humanae Vitae (Theology of the Body).

If some would consider my "switching" to TLM as a conversion, even a schism, then what's the difference bw that and "switching" to Orthodoxy?  So really, if the Catholics can't agree among themselves who is "in" and who is "out", they don't agree on the sainthood of Pope JP2, they don't agree on the validity of apparitions, encyclicals, liturgical style, focus of homilies, etc... then where exactly is that "unity" that is supposedly present in the Catholic church?

I mean, if the Pope is supposed to be the glue that holds us together, but there are people who believe they are more Catholic than the Pope.... that sort of begs the question.... maybe there's something other than the person of the Pope, or the office of the papacy, that counts as Christian unity?  Maybe it's as simple as the creed, held in common with Orthodox and Protestant believers (for the most part, filioque notwithstanding).

Personally, I don't have a particular attachment to the Pope or the papacy.  I can go either way on what Jesus meant when He said "on this rock I will build my church" - whether He meant on this Petras (St. Peter) or on the Confession of faith that Peter had just verbalized.  What I find interesting is that in the Creed professed by Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants, we say that we believe in "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church".  I cannot shake the presence of that word, Catholic.  I know it means universal, but no denomination that I'm aware of has changed it to that synonym.  Almost as if it's beckoning us to return to the fold.

Then again, the creed is one thing, but the Liturgy, the experience of the weekly gathering for worship of the Lord is another.  That is where our faith becomes embodied.  That is where we unite as a group of believers to worship the Lord.  That is where the faith moves from the head (creed) to the heart (body).  So I feel as though I should focus my decision on what is and isn't being focused on in the embodiment of my faith, since the creed is the same.  The details clearly differ within Catholicism, so they're not as consequential as the creed and the liturgy.

It will come down to the style of the Eucharist versus the style of music/lack thereof, I believe.  The overall sense of awe, joy, and reverence of the Divine Liturgy has an incredible pull on my and my family.  On the other hand, the Eucharist in the form of Host and Wine given separately and while kneeling has an equally strong pull on me, perhaps due to nostalgia, perhaps due to my autistic inability to generalize (ie. I don't recognize the Orthodox Eucharist as such because it looks and is distributed differently.)