If someone wants to propose a more graceful and realistic merchandising/front office model, I would be happy to present it to Markus. However, please bear in mind that Markus and SI have already stated that they don't want the focus of OOTP to be on the front office, which is why promotion days and so forth disappeared.
Any model you propose should NOT attempt to match the real-world. It should be simple enough that non-economics majors can grasp it. Basically, IMHO, the more complex the recommendation, the less likely Markus is to be able to change it in time for 2007.
So, start brainstorming!
Steve