Upon reading all of the above questions and explanations, I have decided to add some more to these, considering all the explanations valid.
Topic of Interest:
"why alcohol is not directly considered/mentioned as 'HARAM' or 'FORBIDDEN' instead of asked to 'AVOID' it?"
Does this lower intensive word 'AVOID' instead of 'FORBIDDEN/HARAM' differs Alcohol from Pork and other similar staff?
Explanation:
In Surat Al-Ma'idah (5:90) Alcohol is included in the broader term 'Intoxication', which is referred as the work of Satan. There Allah also tells that, to get success- we should avoid Satan and its work- including 'intoxication'. [Ref: http://www.quran-islam.org/articles/alcohol_prohibition_(P1163).html]. As here Allah mentions intoxication is a work of Satan, self-intoxication (through Alcohol and staffs like that) is the same work as what Satan does.
Now, use of Alcohol is of two types that we have explored; one is for the benefit of the human health (such as- for medical surgeries, in medicines or even warming own self to extreme cold situations) containing in a certain and limited amount as well as only in the state of necessity prescribed or used by professionals. On the other hand, alcohol is used as recreational/habitual purpose (such as- in the parties, for stress relief, or to get rid of frustration/sorrow) which are most of the time not bound by any limit and often been provoked by others/situations.
1) Given these two major types of usage of Alcohol, the word 'Intoxication' mostly refers to the latter one which most of the time leads us to sinful acts (although sometime we might not understand the intent of the sin). To me, Allah has given us many alternatives instead of using Alcohol for the purpose of self-intoxication. I think that amplifies the word 'AVOID' the "alcohol
But, Allah did not forbid something which is beneficial for human being. As alcohol has many beneficial usage, mentioning the word 'HARAM/FORBIDDEN' would lead to miss the benefits of alcohol. Thus, use of word 'AVOID' is totally justified by the context of usage of alcohol by human being- "we must avoid using it when it is similar to the work of Satan and not forbidden/haram as we should use it for our benefits only".
2) Pork is proven to be a germ containing animal and harmful (no benefits at all) to human health as well as have thousands of alternatives, it is mentioned as HARAM/FORBIDDEN [Ref: http://islamicvoice.com/february.99/zakir.htm].
If we consider the fact of available alternatives/supplements only, there are similarities between consuming pork and alcohol, which is- both have harmful effect on human. So, between alcohol and pork (and other similar staff like blood etc) we can infer that, "in which cases we harm ourselves and can find alternatives- those are to be avoided and in which cases it is not beneficial to human kind at all- those are to be forbidden/haram". So Allah mentioning 'Avoid Alcohol' for intoxication purpose is similar to referring as haram/forbidden when it is harmful and we have alternatives like the case of eating pork/swine.