Excellent points and I could not have stated It better. The huge issue with the NFL is that it is trapped in its own cynicism (right word right?). This a league wide issue from the owners down to coaches.
The rules area has collapsed due to pure ignorance. Officials got old, less accountable and micromanagement has increased the pressure of the job. There is no incentive for these men to be better because they have a job next week and then the following year.
The rules book became to complex. The NFL tries to be perfect but doesn't have an adequate system in place. Then when they are wrong and are called out on it they just say " no you're wrong". What are we, five? I've seen the NFL admit maybe a handful of calls were wrong since the replay moved to New York. You got to be joking? They act like human error has never occurred in any of these games.
You're idea for goal line camera is spot on. It's not that hard to put a few camera in place for such a crucial area of the field. The chain gang needs to be modified to. You can place small cameras to get an accurate representation of where the first down marker is. I'm sure laser tech could be implemented instead.
And the catch rule. Long story short the Jesse James and Zach Miller catches should be touchdowns. just make it simple.
One note on the officials... They need to be held accountable for the game. they can shift entire games to an entire teams favor. there needs to be competition for those spots every year so you improve the performance.
The NFL needs to learn to be more progressive and forward thinking. It will be tough when these old owners don't accept they need go change
