Create a nuget package with GeneratePackageOnBuild and version patching

What I've been strugling with for some time:

I have a "traditional" (i.e. non-SDK) csproj file. I want to create a nuget package. That's easy but devil hides in the details and I end up in the following catch-22

1. I can manually call nuget pack .\Foo.csproj, with or without a nuspec file, but then I get the dreaded NU5128 error. The chosen answer suggests to simply ignore the error. I would happily do that, but after publishing the package locally, I noticed that the dependencies are not included. Though there is one dependency to JSON.net that I added for the sake of testing. The same error appears in AppVeyor if I configure my yml to create the package.

2. I can specify all the packaging related properties in the .csproj file by setting GeneratePackageOnBuild to true. It works and takes the dependencies right but then I can't patch the version like I could do with the replacement tokens of nuspec. The version defaults to 1.0.0.0 even if I change it in the AssemblyInfo.cs to 1.2.3.4.

Notes

• This answer suggests that nuspec and csproj configuration can coexist and they are merged. The question is from 2013 so I guess it's not referring to SDK projects. Unfortunately that's not the case for me.
• I tried adding a <NuspecFile> in the csproj but then it seems that replacement tokens don't work and I get the error described here. Probably because this instructed nuget to run pack on the nuspec instead of running it on csproj and merge the nuspec. I can't know for sure though as setting the build verbosity to Detailed didn't help to understand what nuget pack tried to do.
• Getting the AssemblyInformationalVersion in msbuild and use it straight to the <Version> property isn't as straightforward as one might think and it also defeats the purpose as $version$ is doing exactly that according to the documentation:

AssemblyInformationalVersion if present, otherwise AssemblyVersion

Is there a way to really "merge" .csproj and .nuspec with $version$ patching and get the dependencies in the nuspec right?

So far the best course of action was to convert the project to SDK format. It has several advantages. Less configuration, no need for .nuspec file, no need for AssemblyInfo.cs or VersionInfo.cs files, .nupkg dependencies are correct and AppVeyor can patch directly the .csproj file if it's an SDK project file.

Not a solution per se if one wants to keep the legacy format, but it gets you going with the CI/CD instead of having you fighting with tools.