Hey Clark,
I understand what you are saying, but I think a radical re-cut of the film, maybe even starting from scratch, instead of just a trim, is far fetched. That is a lot of work, a lot of gluing and re-gluing of film, and getting the sound back in order as well.  Like I said before the finished film looks like it could have been trimmed.

It is also quite possible that Browning was just confused as to how best to edit the film, not technically,  just how to best tell the story. Whatever the reason, a lot of bad choices were made in the editing of the released film.
Looking forward to seeing your cut of the film, which I have no doubt will be better.

Hopefully someone in the Universal vaults will find the original cut, now that would be exciting.

Tim