Our babies are about the same age and we're going back to work at the same time, so I guess I'm pretty well placed to comment on this 
Firstly, I'm happy to feed to sleep. I try and use that to my advantage. How come you're concerned about it? If it's the old 'rod for your own back'...well, I don't see it that way. I figure for a good few years I'll be giving him a cuddle before bedtime and I kind of think of a BF as fitting into that category for now. Are you worried about how she'd sleep at nursery/childminder's? Don't be - the professionals know how to deal with these things. We've started DS at nursery a few half days this past week and he sleeps brilliantly there. No idea how. Can only assume it's the Dark Arts because I don't recall don't recall detaching my boobs and leaving them there.
Secondly, two half hour naps, as you're obviously aware, is not enough so she's probably overtired which is probably why it takes ages for her to go to sleep, and is a ticking time bomb of grump. The way I cracked naps was by realising that DS really can't stay awake for longer than two hours. He has no daytime routine (not for lack of trying, I hasten to point out) but what I do do, is take note of what time he wakes up (usually ungodly, although, this is a current project as well), count 1.5ish hours, then start looking for sleepy cues (yawning, eye rubbing, grizzly). The second I see even the tiniest one, I wrap him in a blanket - the same one, every time in the hope that it will develop a portable sleep association and so he knows what's expected when The Blanket appears. Then I feed him to sleep and stick him, blanket and all, into his pram or cot. He also only sleeps for half an hour at a time, but I'll get a minimum of three, but usually four, naps into him this way. This is how I use feeding to sleep to my advantage, because, once I started doing this, getting him down at night actually improved and his day time fretfulness disappeared almost overnight.
Thirdly - I'm with you on night feedings. I think they're still needed at this age. Mine's a monster, so I figure he needs the fuel to keep outgrowing clothes at the rate he is and to learn the new tricks he's acquiring on a daily basis. I don't intend to do anything about night-weaning until he's over six months, and see if anything like solids or time at nursery does anything to change this (this is me not holding my breath). If it's still an issue in January, say, I'll crack out the gradual withdrawal/camping out again, since that's worked before and I'm happy(ish..well not really but you know what I mean) with it.
Fourthly - if you gaze into your crystal ball, that should tell you if it will all be sorted by 9 months. 
Honestly - look at the sleep forum. There's ages of kids up to around five years with won't-go-to-sleep-itis. It might sort itself out, but it might not, and unfortunately you're just going to have to make the extremely tough decision as to whether you risk playing wait and see, or whether you do something about it before then. In my case, I had to do something about it, and will continue to do something about it as the alternative is utterly, utterly intolerable for me.
Hope there's something of use in all that