Believe it or not, I'm sorta on Janx's side here. If you can't make good, or even great beer, with a traditional mashing system, it's pretty pointless to invest time and money into a HERMS in hopes that it will actually improve anything. It won't. In the end, the skill lies with the brewer. I think your ability to formulate recipes, handle your yeast properly, and control fermentation temperatures have a lot more impact on your beer than your choice of mashing systems. A well designed Recirulating Mashing System (RMS) can enhance your ability to fine tune things, but it's no replacement for knowledge and experience.
Regarding the reverse recirculation concept. Yes, I did consider it. I gave it a lot of thought, drew some pictures, contemplated equipment and promptly dismissed it as silly. Why? Because it is. If you design your system correctly, your wort IS heated evenly. In a typical 5-6 gallon batch sized mash, you will have around 4 gallons of liquid (give or take). At 1 gallon per minute (typical), you are recirculating the entire mash through your heat source every 4 minutes. Channeling? Maybe, but it will be minor. What you are looking for is conversion, clarity, and efficiency. Conversion is a no brainer, it happens no matter what. Clarity you can see, and efficiency you can measure. I think you'll find that all of these will be excellent in a top-bottom type RMS. Reversing the flow will ruin clarity for sure and also introduce some other varibles that I think will make controlling temperature more difficult. Suffice it to say, I think the concept is interesting, but impractical with suspect benefits.