I agree with most of what you're saying and for the record, I'm all for open carry in Texas. But most of those other states that allow it, have complex, goofy gun laws to begin with. And I think you'll find open carry isn't practiced much at all. I don't think it would be in Texas either, but our State lawmakers haven't put a lot of effort into making that change. Maybe it's because they know, the net result will me negligible and there's a lot more pressing issues. The biggest impact will be that Texas will move to the list of states that allow open carry....and that's about it.
One thing is for sure, the effort prior to and during this last session was not much of an effort. If it were, it would have been driven by a Texan, not someone from out of state that profits from getting people read what they write.
My understanding of the open carry effort to date was because of other more pressing issues being pushed. I don't believe it is a dead issue, only delayed.