Sounds like you have put a lot of thought into this!
Here are some other possibilities to consider:
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Have a long text field for entering the most recent note. Pair this with an interface button that the user clicks after typing the note. Clicking the interface button creates a new linked record for the note and clears the input field at the parent record level. You could use the last modified time for the long text field and the last modified by field for the long text field to set who/when info for the linked record.
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Have the linked notes field appear as a grid in the interface. Have an automation that creates new linked notes fields. Either use an interface button that the user clicks to trigger an automation that creates the linked note, or have a automation that triggers when all linked notes have some content and creates a new blank linked note that waits until someone fills it out. You can also have the grid of linked notes open notes into a sidesheet for more editing real estate.
I also like to keep client notes linked in reverse chronological order, with the most recent note first. I sell an automation scripting that sorts linked records.
Sorry I don’t have any good suggestions for notes across bases.