ImageCache or different CCK image fields?
Imagecache can crop. Exact or relative dimensions.

And yes, you can choose the preset for an image field in views. It is very easy. And you can manipulate it with code, but that would be much more complex. I don't think you need this.

If you really need the publishers to manipulate the image on the node edit form, just use IMCE. It integrates with Imagecache, so they could use that.

But the more you can automatize the process, the better.

So try to allow your publishers to send images the way they like (only being bigger than the minimum size you will ever use), and then you use imagecache dynamically to crop and resize the images the way you want over all the places on your site.