I'm loving these ideas. Let me throw out an alternate regarding the 3-PO scenes. What if we cut him out almost entirely. Except for the very last scene of Anakin saying goodbye. I say the rest is totally unnecessary. His introduction, painting the pod, on the sidelines at the race, all of that. It doesn't serve to serve the plot at all. It is meant to 1. Introduce 3PO's character and 2. show Anakin's skills at building stuff. We don't need 3PO around to show that Anakin has good building skills, the pod racer fulfills that. So we keep Anakin's hauling Padme off to show her 3PO, but don't go in the room. Cut him out of every shot possible except for the end. This would lose the Official Meeting of R2 and 3PO until episode 2 but it could be worth it. Or if it would be too jolting to see 3PO at the very end of the Mos Espa stuff all of a sudden, maybe you could have Anakin uncover 3PO when showing him to Padme, and then cut the scene before he gets switched on.
This would also go a long way to fixing 3PO's and R2's 'buddy-buddy' attitude and then their bickering in Episode 2.