“Putting aside his rather thin basis for his observation, his solution to this perceived shortfall in natural variation...”
It is not a “perceived shortfall”. We have decades of hard data about the number of mutations in malaria and what they have produced. Your theory does not trump the physical data.
“...is that the invisible hand of God came down and made up for the supposed shortcomings of his own design of life; like a kid who built a radio-controlled car that cannot turn so he has to reach down and turn it by hand. Not a very flattering view of either biological systems or of God.”
Behe believes it is God, but science allows no claims about the existance or nature of God, so Behe doesn’t make them. His abiding by the rules of science while maintaining his personal beliefs does nothing to negate his scientific arguments.
The rest of your post is just an expression of your theology. It is you who are making theological arguments, not Behe.
When gravity didn’t seem to add up, physicists played with theoretical “dark matter” to try to make it make sense. Here there is actual consensus among scientists that there is an actual shortfall in the theory, yet the hypothetical solution they came up with was one dealing with physics. They didn’t say “It is the power of the creator that holds the universe together.”