2001 Chevrolet Blazer 2WD LS 156k(something) miles

I've been a lurker on here for years and have seen other questions and somewhat answers about this issue.
I'd like to put my take on it.

It was the engine stutter/shudder around 45-65 at low RPMs, around 1500 to 2000.
At a slow constant acceleration, I'd get a massive amount of stuttering through the 45-65 range.

Brought it to a shop and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it as no trouble codes.
A week and a half went by with this shutter and something finally gave way. I accelerated around a vehicle and when I gave it gas a unique sound occurred.
Like the sound of a garbage bag or leaves being dragged on the ground.
I continued forward a few more miles to the area I needed to get to, set myself up for a reverse park job into a spot...and no reverse.
It shifted into reverse just fine, however when I pushed on the gas, no motion.
I shifted back to drive, and it moved forward just fine, but no reverse.
So I drove forward, put it into a good position, dropped into neutral and pushed it into the parking spot.

I let it idle and every few seconds I could hear a soft sound around the transmission area, like ball bearings gliding around (not sure how else to describe it).

I popped the hood, pulled on the accelerator cable and could hear that soft ball bearing like sound again.

Definitely not engine related, been through all that distributor, spark plug, wire, throttle body, whatever else nonsense to know this is definitely something new I've never experienced.

The Blazer had it's first rebuilt trans at around 68,000 and now it's at 156,000. Pretty sure the previous owner pulled something over weight and ruined the trans before, but after that I've been gentle with her and only accelerated around morons from time to time.

So I've reached a point in this thing where I'm basically giving up on it, it might be time to trade this thing in.
Had it since '07 and have talked to a guy about repairs for trans and he's giving me numbers from $2100 for a cheap rebuild to a $4500 GM rebuild.

On top of that, I'm sure eventually the differential is going to go and I remember getting a good deal on a rebuild before for my old '96 Trans Am, but now when I talk to people about rebuilding a diff, they just want to put in a whole new rear axle instead of doing the diff rebuild.
Which apparently would run around $3000.

So in the future, I might be looking at around $8000 in repairs.
I guess my question to all this for you more experienced folk is, "is all this even worth it?"

 

Just spoke to a new guy on a rebuild, he's giving me some rounding numbers of $1700.
Seems much more reasonable.
Even said previous rebuild work has been coming back every year for fluid change and they're running around 150k miles on his rebuilds.
He's talking my language.

Asked about future differential repair and $850 came up, without having to replace whole axle.

Again to some of you experienced guys, is this something I should maybe consider or should I just part this thing out and move on?
Anybody got any transmissions laying around? Ha!

Yes I'm kind of tired of cap and rotor replacement and the dang distributor eventually becoming a problem if I over tighten so replace...but that no car payment is nice.