Thanks, madage! I feel a bit silly now, but I was under the impression you somehow skirted paying taxes on that money by converting from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA and therein was the benefit of the backdoor conversion -- not having too high of an income to be able to contribute to a Roth IRA. Lack of knowledge and wishful thinking I suppose.
As for forgoing the 401k in favor of a Traditional IRA: Wouldn't it still be wise to have both? As I said, I don't think I'll be able to max out each, but with the Traditional IRA limited to $5,500 in contributions, I will still have some extra to put towards the higher limit of the 401k. Assuming my salary will continue to increase, hopefully I'll have more to invest in the 401k down the road.