It sounds like it’s a good way forward. The reality is that depending on how the swim/bike improvements play out over the next couple of years in that AG (and most others under 50!) you’ll need to be running at least as fast if not slightly faster than your current open marathon run time off the bike to KQ. You’ll need to build that base speed up and dropping down the distances for a year or two will give you the opportunity to work on that.
Again in that AG you’ll likely need to be capable of around a 9hr IM time or lower on a fast course to KQ, obviously that time will scale to the course difficulty, and how you get there will depend on your relative abilities in each sport. If you can get to a decent swim time on relatively minimal training that will help as it’ll give you more time to work on the bike and run times.
If you have ‘easy’ gains to make on the bike by changing to a tri bike that is low hanging fruit to grab if you’re able to do so and will make a big difference. The bike may be the longest leg of the race however but it’s on the run where a good performance will really show if you can run up the field. It’s very easy to have a fast bike leg but it’s almost always the run that counts towards the front of the race and the more ability you have in that discipline the more chance of getting towards the KQ places you’ll have.
I’d be interested in hearing the ideas you have for moving forward.