Greg,
You posted this issue in the views_isotope queue several months ago.
I wasn't subscribed to that modules issues via email and totally missed that at the time. Sorry.
I've updated the views_isotope module to the point I think it's "beta-worthy". I included a Feature to show how it can be configured with the Article content type and Tags, but I think it's pretty flexible to do what you want with any content type/taxonomy/field. So far I'm only implementing the default Isotope layout, but I'm open to adding other layouts as long as it's easily configurable. I have a bit of capacity, but I'm not looking to create a support nightmare for myself.
Are you still interested in working on this?