Your post described my husband to a 'T'. He had a horrible time in school with the whole writing part. They actually put him in remedial reading, even though he could (and did) easily read an entire sci-fi paperback in one day, because he couldn't write a good book report. If anyone had asked him to provide a verbal one, he could have easily described the book quite well, but that wasn't the assignment so he frequently received poor grades.
The school tried various things with him, including sending him to a specialist who tried to figure out if there was some sort physiological problem. There wasn't. Eventually the school decided that he just needed to learn to use a typewriter. Not surprisingly, he never learned to be a touch typist, either, since that required him to take the time to learn to type properly so he could do the same boring assignments that never helped him develop good penmenship. (Now, lest anyone reading this thinks that he should have just been spanked, grounded or discliplined in whatever way, more, let me just say my father-in-law tried this. He later recalled that he spanked my husband far more than his other children, yet it never had the desired result. For those who wonder why his mother didn't spend more time with him, she did. Night after night, she'd sit with him helping/encouraging/forcing him to do his homework.)
Skip ahead to today. My husband realizes that the reason he didn't write well was because he was always in such a hurry. Developing good writing required that he sit down and slowly and carefully practice the skills necessary. He didn't find it interesting so he didn't do it; his mind wandered to a hundred other things. Even when made to sit down and try it, his efforts were half-hearted at best and he hurried through it so he could get onto something interesting.
He also had problems writing stories, although he enjoyed it very much, because his writing couldn't keep up with his mind. His stories would often be missing words or whole phrases because he couldn't get the words down on paper fast enough. He still has incredibly poor penmenship ~and~ he can't compose well either, even when using a keyboard.
He and I have talked about this quite a bit, especially lately. If he had been asked to practice his writing on something that was interesting/relevant, it probably would have helped. As an example, he's always been interested in electronics. If someone had asked him to draw and label a skematic of something he wanted to build and as a reward told him that once done correctly and neatly he would be allowed to get the parts and build it, this would have motivated him. It would have been a win-win situation.
Now, back to homeschooling. It would be difficult for a school to create these sorts of assignments for him and every other child. It just doesn't fit into their system. When homeschooling, though, it's pretty easy. Much of the "boring" work kids do in schools is because that's what the school needs to do to keep all the kids on the same page. The school can't teach to each child's strengths, so it has to create a variety of work and hope that some of it sticks with some of the children. It's much different when an adult, especially a parent who has a vested concern in making sure the child learns, can concentrate on a smaller number of children and exploit how those children learn.
My impulsive, figity, child who has difficulty focusing is also a hand-on child. He usually learns his math and science skills while building something. Frankly, it really doesn't matter if he's 'tiggering' all over the family room while he's figuring out what 5+3=?. I don't make him sit at a desk while trying to read. He can stand or bounce while reading and that's OK because he IS reading. Of course, we working on sitting still, too, but we focus on that alone. I don't try to get him to focus on sitting still AND sounding out words. It simply doesn't work. That's the beauty of homeschooling: I can do what works.
So, my long-winded answer to your question is that I do think homeschooling can work for your son as long as you're careful to take advantage of his strengths while you work on his weaknesses. If you try to recreate school at home, it probably won't work for your son for the same reason that it doesn't work for him at a traditional school.