Thanks for your research here. I'm taking a break from fitting a sink and joining in with the discussion to the annoyance of those who want to be able to wash their hands.
Fair enough, but being in use does not make it correct per se or indeed preferable.
How the language is used is the way to find out what is correct. We may not like it, but trying to say how the language ought to be used is futile.
However, as you have argued to case for this so well, I will permit you to use both 'different to' and 'dissimilar to' as you see fit and I will not now become irritated, at least by your use thereof.
Further research on 'different' reveals that
The New Fowler's Modern English Usage (3rd edition, 1996) and
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage (1st edition, 2004) endorse 'from', 'to' and 'than' depending on the rest of the sentence and do not indicate any hard and fast rule.
TCGtEU has some examples of sentences where you are invited to consider which of 'from', 'to' or 'than' you would use in place of '...'.
Bob's approach was different...Jo's.
Bob had a different approach...Jo.
Bob's approach was different...what we expected.
Bob had a different approach...what was expected.
Bob's approach was different...we expected.
Bob had a different approach...we expected.
It varies from day to day but my own use would most commonly be 'from', 'to', 'from', 'from', 'than' and 'than'.
I drew the line at digging out the other twenty or so books I have on English usage.
I dislike (but can do little about) terms like 'from whence', 'centred around' and 'meteoric rise' (meteors don't rise, they fall).