I am familiar with and have used data validation and it has many shortfalls.
1) Case sensitive
2) No "Auto Complete"
3) Prior versions of Excel do not recognize selecting from the list as a
change event

Is there a more functional way to enter data, or am I missing something?

What I would like to do is have "Autocomplete" work from a seperate list,
rather than just the cells in the same column's "CurrentRegion".

Is it possible to have control over the "list" that Autocomplete uses, or am
I destined to include the list in the same column's "CurrentRegion" as the
data entry lists to make this happen?

I've been using a "List Box" to do this, but it's cumbersome to display a
form or embed and remove an object when data is being entered in the
worksheet.

I've been struggling with this for years and would appreciate any insight
you may have.