The only thing that could wreak havoc on the existing system (which has multiple players) is hiring a consultant who is knowledgeable about this in order to help you navigate the obvious bullshit that anyone will encounter when purchasing a domain name.
For people who deal with this type of thing all that the OP has described is often anticipated and is worked around.
For example I had a case recently with buying a name (for someone) where the seller told me that "the transfer has to be done with godaddy that's the only way that escrow.com works". For someone who doesn't know "how it works" unraveling (and getting the seller to change their opinion) would take many phone calls to get to the point of being able to simply get the auth code to transfer the name to the registrar of their choice (which is not godaddy).
There is not a technology answer to this issue. It's a knowledge and people answer.
That said if anyone thinks they have a way to disrupt this I would be glad to hear about it and tell them what I thought about it (based on my 18 years approx in this business.)