1) Chess 960 is cool, but really misses a lot of the interesting parts of chess. Also completely ridiculous to talk about "reviving" chess since chess is at near peak popularity. Unclear what goal you're suggesting could be achieved. Chess on TV? Chess a mainstream activity? I think there are lots of reasons why this is really difficult starting with chess is very very complex due to the availability of perfect information and several hundred years of people studying it. It's still more popular to watch videos of people playing chess than it would be of people doing biomedical research.
2) Openings are not as dead as you think. There are certain lines that are more well studied than others, but until you're 2650 FIDE (don't worry, 99.99% of players won't get there) you can deviate and have just fine results.
3) I think your thoughts about the opening are probably mis-informed. Look at the games from the recent london chess classic here:
https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/london-chess-c...
In round 3 Vachier-Lagrave already spent 9 minutes as white on a single move at move 9 in a open sicilian (maybe not as few choices as you're suggesting).
Again in round 4 he spent 5 minutes on move 9 in a sicilian and then 12 minutes on move 11.