"None of us is perfect" or "none of us are perfect?"

I disagree.Using your rule, you would say "One of us are perfect." One and none are both singular. "NONE of us IS perfect" is correct. It links a singular noun, which is "None" to the singular verb "is." "Us" is not linked to the verb in this sentence.

"None of us is..." was the only way of saying it in earlier forms of English, but that doesn't make " none of us are..." incorrect in modern English. "None" means both "not one" and "not any"; it's used with both singulars and plurals. For instance, it can be used with numberless count nouns like "water": "Following the drought, none of the water was left in the lake" = if "none" were singular here, we'd be talking about "one water having left the lake". Modern English (UK more so) also goes all out for notional agreement, so it's now normal to say "the family/police ARE coming", "five years IS too much", "The United States IS rich"...

None means 'not one'. Even if we streach it to mean 'not any', it's also singular. That said, you can either choose the strict link between the quantifying subject and verb (none... is) or between complementing pronoun and verb (us... are). In Spanish even words like 'majority' can go either way: 'The majority is/are'. But normally, 'The majority of the students are'. However, in Portuguese, one of the most strict Latin languages, the link is always with the singular form of the quantifying subject: 'The majority is' / 'The majority of the students is'.

* Sorry, stretch.