"Squeezeout" - complement to blind increases?

Relying on blind increases to pace a tournament has some draw-backs, and I've been thinking a bit about alternatives. What I don't like about blind increases is that it seems you usually reach a steady state where everyone is more or less short-stacked, and there is little room for post-flop play. It also means that the early play, when blinds are still small, is fairly insignificant. Getting lucky with a coin-flip at the short-stacked stage can be more valuable than building a stack early on by good play. You can increase the average stack sizes by slowing down the blind increases, but that also slows down the tournament.
One of the alternatives I've been considering is to replace the blind increases by some sort of fines. At scheduled times all remaining players lose a certain number of chips (anyone who doesn't have enough to pay the fine is eliminated). This would put a pressure on the short stacks, but allow big stacks to continue playing deep-stack poker for longer. If blinds don't increase then there is more pressure to fight for every chip right from the start, so you can't rely on keeping out of the way during the early levels and hoping to coin-flip your way back to contention if you don't catch a monster.
It doesn't seem easy to make a robust fine structure, but maybe it could be used together with increasing blinds. E.g. instead of having 20 minute blind levels, perhaps have 30 minute levels with a 4BB fine in the middle of each level.
It's not obvious how to implement rebuys in such a system. Maybe either don't allow them (and play a "squeezeout"), or subtract the sum of all fines imposed from the chips that you get when you rebuy.
Any comments? Has anyone tried anything similar? Would anyone consider trying it out in a home game and letting me know how it turns out?

There is a reason the current structure has been used for years and years.....it works

In my opinion the true test of a tournament poker player is how you play when you are in the danger zone. By that I mean an M of 15-30. Much higher than that and you have plenty of chips and can withstand a mistake or 2. Lower and you are nearing push/fold stage and everyone knows what to do. At M 15/30 you have enough chips to hurt all but the biggest stack and can still play poker. Blind escalations keep people from waiting for a monster and force them to play marginal hands post flop. Thats real tournament poker. It's supposed to be a different game than cash. The standard blind structure tests all phases of a players game.

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Originally Posted by CTorode

There is a reason the current structure has been used for years and years.....it works

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this is what I kept saying when they ended slavery, but no one listened.

OP, I like the thought but I think it would lead to much longer tourneys which may dry up fish - plus what happens when you have XX people left and everyone has a similar stack size?