I agree with most of this statement. Unfortunately, the general GOP electorate is way too squishy moderate. There are not enough conservatives like those on FR. With nine challengers who split the non-Romney vote, it was 2008 all over again and we're left with McQueegII.
Enough unrealized primary votes existed that any of the nine could have been made to walk all over Mitt. Virtually all the national celebration of the act of voting is over general elections. The politics that sets up the choice seen by voters in general elections has already long transpired by that time. Primaries are immensely important things. It would be worth a multi year campaign to try to drum that truth into the minds of the forgetful body politic.