All good except one point. When attention is spread out evenly over the whole range of experience verbal thoughts do stop altogether, sometimes for 5 minutes or longer.

I think I would just amend it to saying, don't be concerned whether thoughts stop or not. If thoughts are present, as long as there is not identification with the thoughts, that is meditation in the sense you're talking about.

I have found that for many people, shifting attention from objects (sense objects or "objects" in the mind like thoughts and feelings) to the space around objects - visual space and the "space" between thoughts - can be a paradigm shift for their practice (see Les Fehmi for more).

If you apply this understanding of attention to space to all of your points, folks might find it easier to relate.