Hm. I certainly think what you would like to do, but believe impossible,
about 5321bis sounds good in principle. Pete and I had breakfast this morning
and he talked me around a bit on the asynchronous vs. synchronous thing. I
still think there's a pony in there, but he had some good points, and I can see
how to get what I want using his methodology, so I don't think I need to push
the point.
One of the things I learned rather late in my short tenure as AD is that
sometimes you need someone to evaluate rough consensus who is willing to make
some participants unhappy, and that that willingness is actually rare among
people who call consensus. That is not necessarily because they wouldn't be
willing in principle, but that they don't actually understand how to call
consensus. I think a lot of the non-terminal discussions we have in the IETF
actually fall into that category, and your 5231bis discussion may qualify.
Failing to call consensus in this way can result in the community losing
interest, because they rightly perceive that they are wasting their time.
I'm sure you've read RFC 7272, and may or may not agree with me on the point I
am making... :)