re: Could this be the answer to the NIL/portal mess we have now, and would it work?

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I get it but it really isn't NIL anymore anyway. The second string left guard isn't having his name, image, or likeness used anywhere. No one is buying his jersey, getting him to endorse something, or anything else - he's just getting a check. The actual NIL part of it doesn't seem to exist anymore unless you're someone like Bryce Young doing Dr. Pepper commercials. It's straight up pay for play, and some of them don't even play.

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Yes and no. The players are still doing commercials, even if most of them are at the local level, autograph signings and things like that. As a practical matter it is pay for play, but in a legal sense there's a distinction. If schools start to pay players as employees or independent contractors to play for them, they could still have separate NIL deals with private companies, just like NFL players do. I don't think it would reign anything in. It's too far gone at this point.