Ya, this is the idea behind the reform proposal. The division leaders continue to get automatic births, the top two finishers of those get byes. Perhaps the initial seeding is done as before. But from there the home-field advantage goes strictly by record. It still preserves value for winning division, but takes some of the luck out of rest of tourny. Homefield is too important to hand to inferior team.
My ADHD prevents me from following he rest of your post, but you look like a very nice man so you have my support.