It is my belief that Puerto Ricans favor territorial status over statehood maybe 55%-45%, maybe 60-40. There are a few percent of academics that claim to favor independence, but I think they are posers, in actual fact almost no one favors any kind of independence that would involve giving up their US citizenship.
Which is why I picked up on the "free association" part of the discussion, as if they were trying to come up with some kind of mechanism by which it was an option to claim "independence" while retaining US citizenship. What that would look like, how that would differ from the present arrangement, is not clear to me.
"Free association" to me sounds like a con, a way of easing them out the door, and should be rejected unless they remain explicitly US citizens, they and their children. Liberians thought they were "sort-of" Americans, but when push came to shove they were not. PR should reject "free association" if their US citizenship is diminished in any way.
Statehood, on the other hand, means that Puerto Rico's "round peg" will be forced into a square hole. They already have the best of both worlds, US protection, US citizenship, without the plain vanilla uniformity that may come with statehood. They are the free-est and most prosperous country in Latin America; I'm not sure why they would want to give that up to be just another state.
But I certainly don't think they aspire to be another Liberia, or Dominican Republic. Thats why some modified version of the status quo is their best bet. US, but uniquely their own.
The only answer I can give you to your appreciation of the problem is Justice Harlan's:
"The idea that this country may acquire territories anywhere upon the earth, by conquest or treaty, and hold them as mere colonies or provinces,—the people inhabiting them to enjoy only such rights as Congress chooses to accord to them,—is wholly inconsistent with the spirit and genius, as well as with the words, of the Constitution." - Justice John Harlan, dissenting in the Insular Cases, 1901
Truly, marron, I appreciate your sympathies and warmth towards us. But it is contradictory to the nature of our Republic to maintain the status quo.
Very warm greetings from the tropical, not-so-far-eastern United States of America.
And Merry Christmas y próspero año nuevo.