It could however be a platform to discuss research plans and elicit new input from other researchers/"the public".
I fully agree with this. Discussions are never hurting.
Of course funding agencies look at the proposals before funding (would be great if they wouldn't have to though...) however in my world the people in the boards are often the same people who do the research.
Isn't it possible to find competitors working on very similar topics so that we could have (roughly) the two extremes taking decisions?