Our home is a great room floor plan also, and dining room is part of the great room with a chandy there over table, so in LR part, we have a ceiling fan on a long rod at peak of high ceiling, and it's on now, with windows open, AC off in cooler weather. We have 13 ceiling fans in this home, in SW FL.

we are going to go with a ceiling fan for our great room. i think the air circulation will help a lot as our great room is right next to the kitchen. in winter, you can reverse the blade direction to push warm air down. for a high ceiling, i think it might be useful.
as a compromise though, have you considered the fandeliers? they are ceiling fans that look like chandeliers. they are a little pricey, (but then, so are chandeliers) and have limited style selection, so we are opting to just do a ceiling fan.
here are a few pics of fandeliers

Thanks for the suggestions! Our builder has a contract with a lighting company so they get discounts on certain items. I don't think a fandelier is one of them. They look great though. I may consider that in the future!