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“Its tense suggests a permanent state of being “highly favored,”

Your Greek is in error. What the tense suggests is that the act finished in the past.

“Mary is being called the greatest of all women, greater than Ruth, greater than Sarah, greater than EVE! Since Eve was created immaculate (without original sin), Mary must have been conceived immaculate. And, although Eve fell into sin by her own free will, Mary must have corresponded to God’s grace and remained sinless. She could not otherwise be greater than Eve.”

Actually, she is being called “most blessed’. Not most perfect or faultless, or most anything else, but most blessed [divinely or supremely favored; or favored of God]. Add in the angel’s greeting (”Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”), and you get that she has received the greatest favor [”something done or granted out of goodwill, rather than from justice or for remuneration; a kind act”] any woman ever received from God. And since she is about to give birth to God in the flesh, I heartily agree.

However, it does not suggest she was born sinless or lived sinless. The focus is on what God is doing for her - HIS favor - not her supposed perfection. The same word is used in Mark 8 “They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He ordered these to be served as well.” God (Jesus) blessed the fish. He did not proclaim them sinless fish, or the most holy of fish ever. God used the fish for His purpose, just as He did Mary.

And at the hour of my death, I expect to rejoice, knowing

“”All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” - John 6

If we were talking about Sarah or Elizabeth, the favored mother of patriarchs or prophets, what you are saying make sense. But Jesus is certainly more than that. There is a tendency among those who deprecate Mary to assume a low Christology. The exaltation of Mary by the Church, which can be traced to early times, is a response to those Christians who deemphasized either the divinity or the humanity of Christ. Arius, in the 4th Century, sought a kind of middle ground, that honored Jesus but did not accept him as the incarnation of THE GOD, but as a creature. The Gnostics, who date from earlier times, did not regard him as quite human. Both heresies have this in common, that they think of Jesus as an embodied angel, rather than as the Nicene formula has it, true God and True man.