I'm up stuffing's creek with no paddle!

So here's how it turned out: I diced the red onions and caramelized them with Marsala wine. Then did the same for the persimmons, but over a fairly high heat and took them off fast. They were soft, but not mushy. I spread the pre-dehydrated whole wheat sourdough and roughly chopped pre-roasted chestnuts on baking sheets, sprinkled with fresh chopped Sage and doused with turkey broth, about a cup per large sheet. And I put it in a 425 (I think?) convection oven to crisp up a bit. Mixed everything together and it was delicious! Not mushy! I filled the broiled hard salami cups as an additional appetizer as my hungry guests played more Pictionary, and they flew off the table. I served the rest of the stuffing in bowls at dinner.

Antonia...porchetta+polenta=aaahhhh....I'd make extra cubes to snack on! We're getting off the topic of this question!

This may seem like a bit of a project, but I recommend polenta cubes, which would be perfect here, where they will actually be noticed and appreciated. Make polenta today putting a generous amount of coarsely chopped "stuffing" herbs - rosemary, sage, thyme in the cooking water. Stir in chopped parsley when the polenta is cooked. Spread in an 8 x 8 pan (for 1 cup polenta: 3.5 cups water batch) and chill for 2 - 3 hours in the fridge. Flip over onto a cutting board; cut into 1" cubes. Spread on an large, well oiled baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees; remove pan, let sit for 10 minutes, flip cubes gently, roast for another 20 minutes, let cool on the pan, gently remove. I'd roast some tiny cubes of celery root and fennel, and yes, roast little chunks of that red onion, too! Use just the tiniest bit of stock, if at all. More fresh herbs, finely chopped, yes. I'd put apple in, and not persimmons, which won't be flavorful enough, especially when cooked. Have fun! ;o)
P.S. Keep this one in your back pocket as a good gluten-free stuffing, if you ever need one. All of the foregoing can be baked in a dish in the oven. In fact, it's one of my sides this Thursday, with sauteed chunks of salami included.

If you want to do stuffing cups, make stuffing muffins in your muffin pan! You can use any stuffing recipe you want (the persimmons sound amazing), and the edges come out really crispy. They're easy to serve and are different than the usual casserole. Happy Thanksgiving!

If you really hate stuffing, don't make or serve it (It's your table).
If there are people coming who loves and wants stuffing (and you want to please those guests), either ask them to make their favorite stuffing and bring it, or you make a (smallish) batch of a tried and true stuffing. (And maybe also send it home with that person as a gift.)
If you want to replace the stuffing with a similar starch, serve a high quality bread or plain starchy vegetable.
If you want to incorporate some of the mentioned ingredients in the meal, you can do that elsewhere than stuffing (flavoring the turkey, salami as part of an antipasto platter, etc.)
What I would not do is drive myself crazy inventing and testing a new recipe two days before Thanksgiving.
Maybe you don't have to, either.

I have always struggled with stuffing too, until I was introduced to this one: https://food52.com/recipes/19344-layered-grapes-and-bread-with-chevre-and-balsamic I especially like that the bread is essentially turned into croutons first, it's adds flavor and cuts mushiness, and I think the technique could get incorporated into the plan you have.