Why not let the administrator decide?

Crazy idea, but might make administrators think ...

All of these stupid rules like "one special char, one number, etc etc", as you process and encrypt the password look for how many passwords suffer from them. Okay, you're going to get a few, but if you notice rather more than average, start downrating the strength of the passwords that match these rules.

You just want a mini database (plain text file) that says "x password changes, n complied with this stupid rule, o with that stupid rule, p with the other stupid rule", this isn't random, start complaining about passwords that match them. No need for the file to identify *which* stupid rule ...

At which point, any administrator who says "you need a strong password containing one special character, one number, one upper case, blah blah blah" is going to have the users coming back to them and saying "every time I try to follow the rules, the computer complains it's a weak password!".

Cheers,
Wol