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The Marines need several things as a branch now independent from the Navy.

First is a unit reorganization more in line with their projected missions. Their current organization is far too administrative, and less practical than it should be.

Second is to discontinue most of the "guard duty" assignments for Marines around the world. There is a peculiar quirk in international law about Marines guarding embassies; however, Congress could create a separate sub-branch of "guard Marines", who are distinct from combat Marines, to perform this duty in the future.

Third is that the Marines need their own equivalent of DARPA or the Office of Naval Research, for R&D of next generation weapons unique to the Marines. Their subsisting on Army and Navy hand-me-downs is a major embarrassment.

Fourth, which is already happening to some extent, is for the Marines to both establish elite units within their organization, and to task assign those units in cooperation with the other military branches. Though they initially resisted doing this, it has proven to be most efficient and effective.

I agree with a couple of your points but disagree with others.
The Corps has become far too "administrative." Too many generals and too many officers - too much like the Army.
The Corps needs to expand its grunt base, not by increasing the number of units but by enlarging each unit, by going from a triadic structure to a quadratic one; that is, four fire teams per squad, four squads per platoon, four platoons per company, etc. All this could be done with any real increase in the number of officers.

I have no particular objection to eliminating the guard duty function; it is anachronistic. However, I do not believe that such a move would put that many more boots on the ground.

Establishing a Marine Corps DARPA would accelerate the "administrative" bloat that already grips the Corps. It is unfortunate that the Marine Corps must rely - to a certain extent - on the other branches for R&D but its a price that must be paid to keep down the growth of uniformed paper shufflers.

Under no circumstances should the Corps establish "elite" units within its ranks. The Corps does not need to imitate the Army with its silly paraphernalia of badges, wings, and patches, all of which serve to inflate the ego of the wearer, but do nothing to further the mission of the service. Moreover, once this precedent is established, earning this junk becomes a Station of the Cross for ambitious officers, many of whom have no reason to need them except to further their careers. The paraphernalia itself becomes a badge of competence and the key to entry into some sort of "elite" fraternity. Unlike the Army, the Corps needs to reform, not wholesale, top-to-bottom change.

My son was a Marine Security Guard in Honduras and Jordan. I have a response to your recommendation about creating a special sub-set of guard duty marines.

In effect, I think that is already done informally by the training they receive at Quantico.

It would seem advantageous to me that those embassy guards have the full marine training and experience. We have had fire fights , rescues, and bombings at various embassies. It would seem that fully trained marines wuld be needed in many places.

the current system calls for two 15 month tours so that the marine does not get too familiar with the locals and be susceptible to approaches from spies and unfriendly elements in the country. So they move them after 15 months and return them to another MOS.

Creating a formal sub-group could impair the promotional opportunites for marines and reduce the number who may want to perform guard duty.

My thoughts.

The Marines need several things as a branch now independent from the Navy.
Now independent? The MC is still part of the Dept. of the Navy and has been for a loooooong time. Note the fouled line around the anchor...

Their current organization is far too administrative, and less practical than it should be.
What (and why) are you suggesting - less brass? What does less practical mean?

Congress could create a separate sub-branch of "guard Marines", who are distinct from combat Marines, to perform this duty in the future.
So, embassy guards should be little more than "poster Marines?"

Marines to establish elite units within their organization
I just don't think you have a working knowledge of the Marine Corps.