Wow, this is great information. Thank you for taking the time to break my mechanics down and explain it.
Here's a quick summary followed by a few questions, if that's OK. My backswing swing thought is to extend my left arm straight back, preventing wrist hinge until I'm parallel, which starts the hip turn where I focus on ensuring my hips turn back so my back right pocket goes up and behind me. The back pocket up and behind part helps me maintain my spine angle and prevents flatter shoulder rotation.
I practiced for a few hours trying to implement your tips. Bringing the club more inside was an easy adjustment, and it definitely reduced the loop at the top of the swing, more inside downswing, and better forward shaft lean at impact (I video taped these practice swings, so take the improvement I noted with grain of salt). My swing was just a tad flatter on the backswing, but not a notable difference.
Question: if I understand correctly, my issue is that my hands/arms out race my delayed hip turn, so if I initiate my backswing with earlier hip turn and keep my hip turn & hands more connected, my hands by default come more inside. I believe my hip turn occurs too late in the backswing. Is that accurate? Or, is the separation OK as long as my hands take a more inside path from set-up to were the club is parallel?