Since we're wiping and starting the rings from scratch, I wonder if we want to start at (0,0)? Right now the space needle is 'center', and it teleports us to (31,72,27) for the center of our nether hub. Maybe we treat the space needle as just another portal? I don't know if it would make it any easier to start at (0,0), just throwing that out there.
I wouldn't mind less rings on the pathway either if it makes it a bit quicker to build. We're at base 10 now, so maybe go to 16 or even 20? do we stick to 72 blocks high? Probably need to scope out the spawn terrain to make that call.
There was some talk a bit ago about making the hub more of a bastion remnant style thing, like 30-40-ish blocks square... I still very much like that idea. I was playing around with nether portal towers with 1/8 scale versions of overworld features atop, all made out of blackstone variants. Looked pretty awesome.
I'm definitely doing that where terrain permits.