I like the thought experiment @mondroid and yes scarcity makes sense. As Azircon mentions we have a double-sided concern of ideally making production less common and yet we have to fund the game itself and these can possibly run into a concern, but also if well considered by the devs could possibly have a "sweet spot" where it's possible. But there are definitely intriguing points to this.

I do like the idea of distribution to targeted people in the community that are "doing the right thing," or are active in behavior that the game would like to incentivize.

Thought off the top of my head and highly unscrutinized (warning-possible terrible idea)... What if the packs were not all released at once. What if up to 2% of the packs sold weekly within an allocation formula that makes the most sense, maybe within say a current modern collection power and perhaps an owned, net staked amount of SPS (that is not being rented out).

While I'm kicking out the crazy half cocked ideas, what about as the season rolls on with a new set, in that spirit cards from the previous set are capped at 2% of bcx levels playable at each level. Example, Week 1, 2% of the allocation is made available, all cards can only play at 2% of their bcx max--so basically max level 2 common, and level 1 bcx across the board for everything else (regardless of the card levels you have in the previous set). Week 2, add another 2% to the ceiling of what's playable, Week 3 add and another 2% which would take it to 6% max bcx, and so on. So it would take up to 50 weeks for max cards to even being played. Also after 50 weeks the unallocated packs that didn't sell direct then would be available to the masses.

Woof, how's that for a crazy take? I hope this wild idea does not ruin your well designed and nicely considered post. Well done @mondroid I love to read this kind of stuff that gets the community's creative juices flowing! At worst we can daydream a minute and maybe someone else triggers someone else's great idea.