[Saxony Tarn]

well, Ent, looks like you've found quite a lot on that topic, and all well delineated. me, i'll leave it for fanfic (mine & others) but yes, i do have a strong suspicion that:

1) It was supposed to be Faramir's quest.

2) Faramir would have been quite fine up until the Ring started throwing every possible angle at him that hadn't been exhausted yet, like, "don't you want to get on your father's good side...?"

3) Boromir, meanwhile, whether or not he was savvy enough to figure out that his Da had been replaced with a pod-person, would have staged a coup d'etat and declared himself King, which would mean either a fight between him & Aragorn (read, War of Kin-Strife, part two) or, if Bor' caught the Morgul dart instead, Faramir having to convince him to give it up & step aside so the guy who healed him could take over, which would have been a masterful exchange of dialogue that i'd have loved to read (and if someone else hasn't written it in a What-If, i just may elect to...)

But Tolkein had his point to make about Boromir's Later-Earth counterparts, and once done, B. was expendable. In that respect, his "accidental" Fellowship was deliberate.

s.t.