Speaking from personal experience, I would stay away from Springfield Armory. The one I had came from the factory with a bent plunger tube, broken plunger, and bad extractor. After 3 trips back it still wasn't working reliably, so I sold it.
Of the ones listed I'd be shy about the Ruger. Like Ichiban, I'm not crazy about the plunger tube (see above). I've heard lots of bad things about Kimber's customer service (not recently, though), so that would give me pause. I've not heard anything bad about the Para GI Expert or the Remington R1, and the price is good on them. If I was in the market for a 1911, I'd probably be looking at one of those.
Personally, I love my Springfield armory 1911a1 gi or government. It was almost 20 or 30 years old i think, stock parts, but well taken care of by a vet marine, I bought it for 450 bucks and spent an extra 150 to 200 replacing out all the springs, main parts, sig barrel, all wilson combat for the internals, full length guide rod. And after talking to many people and gunsmiths, decided to take out the shok buffs as almost everybody told me the parts can handle the wear and tear for thousands of rounds as long as you pay attention. I asked people if buying a 1911 for about 500 dollars was a mistake, but when everybody took a look at it told me it was a fantastic deal. Sorry your 1911 was all messed up, but that's why I don't purchase any firearm without handling it directly first. Also, instead of 3 to 4 attempts to get the company to fix something, you had the option to just purchase a wilson combat or other plunger tube setup with springs and plungers, it shouldn't cost more than like 20 or 30 dollars. I just wonder how in the world that gun left the factory with that obvious of a defect. If they showed you pictures of one without the damage I'd call and cuss at them. Anyways, all opinions here, but I don't think it matters what 1911 you get because they are all made essentially the same. Taurus is the only one I would be wary of as their 'zero tolerance ' policy is super questionable. I have a 357 Taurus 605 and the entire cylinder fell out unscrewed from the center post as I was decocking the hammer at home. Whatever internal safety systems they have did nothing, I had my thumb on the hammer, pushing down a good bit, but as I pulled the trigger to drop the hammer is when the cylinder fell out of battery, and I don't know how or why, but as the cylinder was just out of battery, the hammer was snapped back down in milliseconds with at least a 26 or 28 pound DA spring. The hammer fell down and either the cylinder falling out disabled the block safeties or transfer bars or the cylinder was just in a perfect position for the rimfire casings to get hit by the striker. I love the gun, but they should have mentioned that the cylinder can unscrew if you only turn it one way alot and to check on it instead if boasting about tolerances and craftsmanship.
I have a Springfield armory with wilson combat parts essentially, a para expert carry, remington r1 in 10mm. I would suggest taking a look at the sig 1911s before a kimber imo, I'm not a huge fan of some their really flashy stuff and costs related to them. A sig 1911 will be solid, their customer service is great, lifetime warranty on most things, and super fast turnaround on any repairs or armory work needed. A 1k dollar kimber would be baseline or just above, but most sig 1911s are just around the 1k to 1.4k range and there's the sig name and quality. Personally since I have 1911s, I would say get a cheaper one, you can always upgrade or mod parts, then focus on a p220 or p227. They are essentially modern 1911s which I've heard like the p226 will shoot no matter what you do to it