Aruncus should fill the bill for you. I'm trading out a lot of shrubs for herbaceous perennials (like Aruncus) for the same reason as you...tired of shrubs being ruined by snow removal.

Persicaria polymopha! (Is the 4-6' height or width...?) This is a very versatile plant. In full sun it is stiffly upright with dense spikes of white flowers - sort of astilbe on steroids :-) In varying degrees of shade it becomes a laxer - more open - plant that flowers less profusely but is still worth growing. It dies back completely to the ground in fall and is a bit slow to start up in spring. But once it starts growing it rapidly grows into something that looks like a shrub. It doesn't creep from the roots and I've never seen seedlings - or heard of anyone having problems with seeding. I do deadhead because the faded flowers are not particularly attractive and you sometimes get a bit of rebloom after deadheading. It can be multiplied by division in spring or by taking cuttings from the ends of the shoots before they become large with hollow stems.

In full sun - it's the tall white stuff at the back:
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In the shade under a mature ash tree:
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In deep shade under both the edge of the white pine canopy and the shade of the ash tree (it the stuff to the right of the Jack Frost clump, under the edge of the pine canopy.):
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Does that seem to fit your conditions at all?

Persicaria polymopha might be a winner. I'll just need to figure out a sun perennial to put in front of it now. Any suggestions for a good plant that will go in front and transition well into the front of the border?

If there are other perennials nearby already you probably don't need anything other than perhaps some spring bulbs if you like. The Persicaria has a lot of presence once it gets growing and really doesn't need much in the way of transition plants.

I adore P. polymorpha, but mine is easily 6 ft tall and 12 feet wide. It's a massive perennial.

If it gets too wide, I just cut chunks out of the sides/edges in spring and discard them. Backfill the dug-out area with compost. An easy fix....

While I am a fan of the Perscaria polymorpha, for a shady spot I would heartily recommend Kirengoshoma palmata. This is a terrific and underused plant, excellent yellow flowers in the late summer and fall, and though it looks more like a shrub once established, it dies to the ground every year, so you can cut it back without any problems.

Kirengeshoma is indeed another nice plant - but I find it does best in moister soil, and it spreads a lot for me.
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BTW another way to control the size of a Persicaria clump as it gets older in addition to digging out the excess is to simply edit/thin out a number of the stems before they reach full size.