XC (or even road tours for that matter) may not make interesting TV for the average punter
This is the thing, even the tour de france is pretty dull for the most part, but road cycling is on trend so it draws in viewers. What ever you do to xc, the too cool for skool wanabee enduro gang will dismiss it out of hand (I put wanabee because I’ve been in xc races with good enduro racers and they smash the proverbial out of it and normally win sports cat).
I like the idea of the short course as a different event, but not as a seeding for the proper event.