Adam,
While I think your idea has merit,
the problem has been that NAQT has been steadfast in
not assigning teams to "divisions" for RR purposes so
that they can directly rank 1 to n ordinally (with
preference of n being 40-48 for NAQT). Ladder play as it
existed (4 rounds) allowed theoretically the top 6 teams
to be in contention for the championship
title.
On the other hand... have you been talking to Samer?
:)
--- etc.