This feature is so close to what we have ideally wanted for our schools' course flow for several years

If there was an option to change the item function from Due Date to UNLOCK Date, that would be ideal. I know this is essentially Drip Content and is something that many Instructure community members have inquired about in the past, but it looks like the basic "rolling enrollment calendar adjustment" algorithm is there, so maybe as an alternative to the date due, another option (like a dropdown menu) can be added that instead locks the item up until that date, so it can slightly throttle the speed at which a particular student, or a whole course full of students can advance through a course.