I can see why you would be tempted to put a little rye in the grist, it has the potential to impart a little crispness although that amount is not going to do all that much, it will just add nuance. I personally try to get just a slight bit of toast in my version so I add a bit of bisquet malt. I also don’t care for sweet beer so I keep the crystal type malts down and push the malt flavors by doing a double decoction and try very hard to get good attenuation. Another trick you can try is boiling down the first runnings although that can produce some caramel flavors as can a decoction I suppose. I also don’t hop as much as you did although when you lager 6 months like that some of the bitterness is going to drop off. I’ve also got some medium hard water here so I suspect I can get away with less hop and still achieve the same effect as somebody who is brewing with soft water. I would have to agree that any green apple is the result of fermentation. Just reading through the post I bet you could eliminate that by running a bit colder, I usually set up at 48F then once the majority of the beer is fermented do a diacetyl rest which gets rid of any problems plus help ensure maximum attenuation.
This coming weekend I’ll be doing a Munich Helles. Besides liking that style it also allows me to build up a bunch of yeast for the O’fest I’ll do in a couple of weeks. I also just recently purchased a chest freezer which will allow me to lager at much cooler temperatures than I could before; I’m very excited to see what effect that has on my lager operation. 
