please bear with me: I've only eaten pancakes once (not even in the US), so I might not know how real American pancakes taste like.
In pancake recipes the mantra seems to be not to over-mix the batter because of unwanted gluten formation. If you leave the normal batter a little bit longer uncooked, too much gluten will develop. Hence, I would expect the last pancakes of a batch to be worse than the first few. So I was wondering: Why don't you substitute some wheat flour with pure (potato / corn or even wheat) starch to get a more tender result without worrying about over-mixing? The batter would also stay good to a longer time because resting would be mandatory to let the gluten and starch bloom; one would avoid a too strong gluten-network due to a rest that was accidentally too long. Of course then you will need a double-acting baking powder. (Though I read some additional baking soda is good for browning).
I'm asking because I saw many recipes for German Bundt cakes (those recipes with copious amounts of butter and eggs - resulting in a very heavy batter) that call of starch for a more tender cake.