ReBoot

I agree with you there, when I first heard of this thats what I had on my mind.

yeah, I would have gone for that. I was hoping for something like that. But I think they chose to do it this way to make sure they got new ideas out there to attract a new audience --> prove worth to investors --> relaunch the series. Had the fans been in charge, we would have definitely got a direct continuation to the Hunt and similar character designs to the original look of the show, but there've already been arguments posted in people's blogs about why this wouldn't have helped in terms of getting Reboot back on the air...

^
This is true, in some portions - however, is it not possible, nay, probable, that such an issue could have been tackled with the fan-pitch way as well?

possible, definitely, but I wouldn't commit myself to probability unless I had surveyed the entire fandom and knew how many 'diehards/purists' there were in relationship to more open-minded fans. I think the reason some of us are even going along with these ideas is because they were given to us, while if we had been given nothing we would have tried to come up with 'The Hunt' and such, rather than 'some time after the Hunt' or 'some time during the Hunt but relatively long after s4's ending.' Either way, I would have loved to see what ideas we all could have come up with...
In any case, this is what we've been given, so we've got to make the most of it..