Multi categories website structure. Who needs the canonical tag?

Last February mayor search engines announced the support of the new canonical tag and everybody went mad.
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.web.com/original-content.html" />

Ok, Ok. I recognise it can help in many cases to deal with the infamous duplicated content issue but as I love to do things right from the very beginning, best way to achieve perfect results, the conclusion is crystal clear for me: if you have to do profuse use of canonical tag you have a web structure problem.

101% the origin of this problem is having pages under several different categories what produces duplicated content. Example of same item under different criteria:

mammal    cetaceans        dolphin

carnivores     marine        dolphin

Indexing a site is not collecting all its words to put them chaotically in a bag, search engines try to understand, also through site structure, how they are organised, which is the main subject according to this structure, subcategories related and so. Keep it in mind, it is important.

Multi category structures problem

Now imagine you have to SEO an online store selling mobiles. We have the same device under three or more different categories and the possible URLs. Let's call our mobile device 'C-3Pphone' and may the Force be with you.

Mobiles     C-3Pphone     …

By type     Smartphones        C-3Pphone        …

By OS    Open source       C-3Pphone       …

Note we have a 'file list > file' model or
'category - items list > item' or
'mobiles list > mobile' model, an example:
phone.com/moviles/ (items list linking to item content pages)
phone.com/moviles/c-3pphone.html (item content page)

Duplicated pages, canonical solution

This could be the first idea lighting a bulb in your head, having the same page c-3pphone.html at the end of the different categories or subcategories that equals to three different URLs for the same content, the mobile description.

phone.com/mobiles/c-3pphone.html (content page)
phone.com/mobile-type/smartphones/c-3pphone.html (content page)
phone.com/operative-system/open-source/c-3pphone.html (content page)

Then use canonical tag for all of then but the one we decide is the most important.

Why I don't like the canonical tag solution

• Add an extra headache for programmer
• Structure seems a bit fuzzy to search engines finding same content under different categories
• Canonical should help to fade the relevance of all the copies but it is a patch
• Link strength coming from previous pages in structure is not concentrating on the main content page

Single page, simple linking solution

Second approach: no content page duplicates. What? Yes, just a single brave and bold one under the main category. From any other secondary category pages a direct link to that page. Siloing idea comes to play here.

phone.com/mobiles/c-3pphone.html (content page)
phone.com/mobile-type/smartphones/ (list page linking to c-3pphone.html)
phone.com/mobile-operative-system/open-source/ (list page linking to c-3pphone.html)

Benefits of single page simple linking solution

• Less pages to maintain, from SEO and technical point of view
• Content concentration what makes main subject more relevant
• Link love concentrated in the content page what helps it rank better

Going further: subpages

But the online store selling mobiles example can not be so simple, sure you want to relate the page describing the mobile device C-3Pphone with its accessories, a product subpage for any of its characteristics, it is also a smartphone and its operative system is open source. Where to place these sub pages? Where the links to them should come from?

The idea here is to get the links to all the mobile page subpages (Type, SO, related accessories…) from their correspondent secondary categories, something like:
phone.com/mobiles/c-3pphone/ (main content page)
phone.com/mobiles/c-3pphone/open-source-so.html (content sub page)
phone.com/mobiles/c-3pphone/smartphone.html (content sub page)

More benefits with subpages linking solution

• Themes congruence
• Consistency in internal link structure
• Search engines perfectly understanding what is all about the way we want it
• Link juice flowing up and down like delicious manna in a closed circle

Definitely if there is a simple solution, easier to implement and paying more benefits, who needs canonical tag? I love to follow the classical Mies van der Rohe motto Less is more or as a friend of mine use to say: things can always be more simple.

Opinions about the 'single page simple linking' idea are welcome.
Any information architecture expert in the room?.