Re-downloading apps purchased in a different country?
I was pretty much in the same situation as you and got the same answers from iTunes support. Like you, I did not want to manage two Apple IDs. So finally I just switched countries.

Here is what I did:


I went to my purchased history before changing the stores and made a screenshot of everything I own (10 pages for iOS and two for OS X).
After switching countries, all the apps that I purchased are gone from the purchased list and if I search for an app that I previously bought, instead of getting the cloud icon I just get the price tag.
However if you click Buy it will ask you for your password, think for a few seconds and you will get a message, something like "you previously bought this app so now it's free" and you won't be charged. 


As long as you know what you have purchased in the past, you can get in now for free.