This has all the problems of Zaru Go—backfilling, group tax, creates an additional step towards real go—so if people think backfilling is OK, Zaru Go should be seriously considered.

Not only because to me it seems easier for beginners to count stones off the board (and less scary to re arrange them, group them in piles of ten etc).

But because stone counting requires an explicit understanding of Life & Death in order to even play, whereas Zaru Go fosters an intuitive, unspoken understanding of it.

Stone counting pupils needs to be taught two eyes and life; Zaru Go pupils will discover life through play. And, they'll learn a more complete understanding of life since there are alive shapes that aren't easily described as "two eyes" and there are dead shapes that do seem to have two eyes.

There's also a natural transition to territory scoring: "instead of filling in the empty points while handing over stones, just count the empty points".