I agree with much of that. The big point of potential disagreement comes here:
I would suggest that, if the early Christians regularly interpreted scriptural passages about "the Lord" (= Yahweh) as applying to Jesus, then they were saying that Jesus is Yahweh.
My recent debate with spin is relevant: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2588&start=10#p71703. In the Pauline epistles, the Father is called God, but the Father is never called Lord. That title seems to refer to Jesus alone (spin obviously disagreed with me on this, and you check our arguments against each other for yourself). The distinction between the Father as God and Jesus as Lord seems to emphasized here:
This verse appears explicitly to deny the title of Lord to the Father; there is only one Lord, and that is Jesus.
It also occurs in the Jesus Hymn we are discussing, as well as in most of the epistolary greetings:
1 Corinthians 1.3: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. [Refer also to Romans 1.7; 2 Corinthians 1.2-3; Galatians 1.3; Philippians 1.2; 1 Thessalonians 1.1, 3; Philemon 1.3.]
What appears to me to be the case is the following:
El = the Father = Yahweh = God.
Pauline epistles:
God = the Father.
Yahweh = Jesus (= a god?).
Hebrew scriptures (earlier indications):
El = the Father = God.
Yahweh = his Son = a god.