Good post - that all sounds very sensible ! One refinement you could try is to make sure the two spots closest to the DM are for quiet types. That would (hopefully) enable them to tell you what they are doing without the stronger types trying to dictate their moves to you.
How do you let people know which seat will be theirs ? Our group tends to just come in and sit down at whichever chair they fancy, first come, first choice....
Oh I just mean it's my preferred pattern of seating. At this point (a year into the campaign) most people are pretty settled on where they sit, but I do try a bit of subliminal messaging "Oh yeah I wanted Player A there because he may need to leave at X time" etc.
It would be nice to have two of the quieter players there but then also that leaves me trying to help them see what their options are while I'm also trying to DM stuff behind the screen. It's all very complicated.
but maybe I will try some assigned seating and see how it goes!