I think lack of fan acceptance would prevent such rollback.
My Dad played in the early 40's and most football players suffered facial and dental injuries in the leather helmet days as well as shoulder injuries because of the flimsy shoulder pads.
Sounds similar to present day hockey players. The dislocated shoulder and broken nose are self limiting factors which serve to prevent more serious spinal injuries and long term debilitating conditions.
We should be improving the equipment, not eliminating it.
I don't know to what extent any equipment improvements will lessen the risk of long term conditions. As equipment improves, the game will probably evolve towards even bigger, stronger and faster athletes. While equipment and athletes change, the laws of physics do not. If the equipment is safe enough that a quarterback can withstand being blindsided by a 300 pound defensive end, the game will start seeing 350+ pound defensive ends running 4.8 40's.
You made some good points.
We're a football family. My Dad and his brothers played, my brother and I played, my nephew and sons played and my youngest is still playing at the collegiate level as a defensive end, BTW. :-)
He's not 300 pounds though (plays at 240 and runs a 4.62 40), but he is of the "Bigger, Faster, Stronger" school of power lifting. You're correct about players getting bigger and faster and I do think that more efforts need to be made to eliminate steroids and HGH from the equation to help prevent injuries. My son didn't do steroids and he's pretty much reached his size limit.
Everyone that played football in my family did it voluntarily and we understood the risks, however; my youngest son is the first to go on to play college ball and has 2 years of eligibility left, so we'll see how he comes out of it. He's had a few concussions over the years and had his ACL torn in his first college game. He's come back from that just fine and is still motivated to play and the 1/2 scholarship he got is certainly helping him through college. He knows he's not going to play in the NFL and is becoming a teacher and yes, a football coach. It's the choice he made as well as the rest of us that played in the family. We're not victims.