The only D&D rule sets I've played with are 3 and 4, so I'm not sure how 3.5 makes mass miss streaks a thing of the past. But I wonder if it would be better to go to an even earlier version that didn't require a game grid. Was it version 1 or 2 that didn't require miniatures?

I'm typically not very interested in combat, mostly because it is free form and there's no skill involved. You're expected to try to win by way of arbitrary rules. However, the idea of playing with actual rules might make things more interesting for me.  If you need someone to test this... I might be in the mood to try it out. If nothing more than a test.

My only concerns thus far is that there won't be much depth. You don't get very much strategy at level 1, and I'm afraid the battles will be won at character creation instead of the arena itself if you catch my drift.