While I agree that the upcharge on the gardens is annoying, opening them up doesn't fix the problem. Anything they add that has even middling to fair views of both the front of the castle and the fireworks (including the proposed path you quoted) will immediately become clogged with people regardless, which is why they should focus on Main Street arcades and alternate desirable viewing angles instead. The arcades wouldn't have views of the show that would see people stopping in the middle of the pathway, and alternate views with their own projections might encourage some of the throngs to go elsewhere.
I agree that a major part of the problem (
maybe nearly all of it) was the change in show setup that made in front of the castle the only complete viewing area in the park.
I was just pointing out that back when they were doing work to help address the current problem
(this was designed as a reserved option for Fast Pass before they ditched that for cash, too), they scrapped the effort to handle more guests safely than they currently could in favor of turning a quick buck so I wouldn't count on a major new construction effort to deal with an issue they seem to have changed their mind of having serious concern over.
That example shows though that when they have to choose between an up-sell and a release valve, they'll take the upsell at the expense of efforts to preserve the general guest experience which is unfortunate.
Finding a way to throw projections on the Haunted Mansion and/or the back side of the Cars attraction or something similar and adding a bit in the way of
small pyro on those structures to provide any sort of alternative to the castle experience, I could possibly see, though, if it's a structure they can line a viewing area up with that matches the direction of the big pyro from behind the park.
If they got rid of Flying carpets, Tiki Room entrance might work in Adventurland, for example.
www.wdwmagic.com
Except for Moana because Moana 
