Are you sure it's proper upset crying and not shouting (the way you describe it, it does sound like upset rather than indignant)?
I only ask because my son (13 months) wouldn't be able to fall asleep after 5 minutes if properly upset. I do a similar bedtime routine to you and some nights he cries when being dried after the bath and dressed for bed, but that's when he's too tired. Sometimes he shouts for a couple of minutes after being put down, but if it's upset crying I need to go back in because it just gets worse.
I think it's so hard if you have a baby that finds it difficult to fall asleep and hard for others to understand if their child responds differently. In my son's case, he has not fallen asleep (for nighttime sleep) in my arms, or with me in the room since the end of the 4 month regression. I need to put him in the cot in his own room and leave him to it. When he's very tired he reaches out to the cot to signal me to put him down. That would be great if he didn't also complain about it- it's some kind of miserable self sabotage, he can't fall asleep when someone's there, but doesn't really want that person to leave. Some kind of instinct tells him that if an adult is in the room they must pick him up NOW.
Anyway, the point of that essay is that it took me ages (months) to figure out that I just need to leave him to sleep. If he does proper crying after being put down, I go back in and cuddle for a bit before trying again so I can check if he's too awake or for any other obvious reason. I do this three times max and somehow it always seems to work. I think it's usually caused by over tiredness. By the third time, he's knackered enough to drop off quickly. IME over tiredness causes a really dramatic sounding shouty sob, but it finishes quickly.
Good luck with whatever works for you. None of the sush pat, gradual retreat techniques worked for us. Nor would my son co sleep. Unfortunately, that doesn't work for everyone, so don't feel bad if it doesn't work for your child. I know lots of people say that sleep naturally gets better- it does, but it can happen incredibly slowly (I didn't sleep through the night until I was 6 and nearly broke my parents 
). Maybe you can deal with lack of sleep, maybe not- parents need to be able to function. What prompted me to really stick to my strategy once I saw it working, was that my son was finally well rested and happy during the day instead of constantly being grizzly and grumpy. He was chronically shattered. Babies really need enough sleep.