I still continue to shoot but I've moved on to using GoPro 5 and various Nikon DSLRs and I have to absolutely agree: nothing comes close to DSLR and decent optics! The only problem is that you get slight fluctuations in image brightness even when shooting identical shutter speed, etc. which necessitates a non-free tool like GBDeflickr or LRTimelapse to get flicker-free video. Alternately just stick to using non-SLR cameras such as GoPro or other Compact with the function builtin, which I've noticed is becoming quite standard in most cameras.
As for controlling your Canon, if you want to skip a step (and extra hardware requirements) you could just put MagicLantern on an SD card and write a LUA script (or download one of the many available ones out there).
I happen to have a registered copy of Webcam32 from years ago, so with that and copy of XP, I've been able to timelapse things for zero-cost. Then it's just a case of FFMPEGing the jpgs into an mp4.
However, nothing comes close to a proper DSLR doing it - it's all about the optics. So I might do the hack described in this comment (I have a 350D):
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13865967