Love it.
Would I be correct in thinking that the intention of this is to massively minimize the amount of micro in the game and thus focus the game on high level strategy?
I feel like there are a few branches to go down here.
- One would be something like an old RTS called Majesty in which you built building but had no control over units at all. This game is fun, but has problems.
- A second and I think better is the path you've identified in having control over units and where they go and what they generally do, but not having control over the main battle. While this does get rid of the massive impact of micro, I feel like it may have some problems - for example an army clearly getting annihilated plows on, but maybe that's okay.
The focus around the commander does detract from the overall objective, but is very thematic and does allow for those cool tricks that you've mentioned previously - it is also quite manageable from a micro standpoint - there's only one area to take care of.
A bit of a jankier suggestion might be giving units a delay (say 5 seconds) between what you order and it happening. If you do this, units are still doing what you want them to, but it removes the ability to do most insane micro. You could also tie that delay to the distance between the unit and the commander.
I have a feeling that you would have to limit the control over cons near the front as well as military units.