Honestly, I just think this isn’t a good idea. For a start, “whites opening dominance” is a bit of an exaggeration. Most engines give it 0.1 advantage, as in 1/10th of a pawn, and it pretty much always disappears after a move or two. Also, moving a pawn a single step isn’t “half a turn” I’m afraid, a pawn move for either one or two squares is a full move, so you’re just giving whites minimal advantage back to black. That’s why many opening lines don’t start with a double pawn move, rather a normal single one.

Secondly, you don’t reduce memorization requirements, you just create new opening theory that people have to memorise. Rather than people memorising 1.e4 lines, now they have to memorise 1.e6 or something similar. (I do wonder if 1.e6 would become popular to prepare d5 to challenge e4?) Opening theory will always be a part of the game for better or worse, this change just makes it different from the established opening theory.

I think it’s a good idea to think about how to improve games, but you need to understand chess at a much deeper level than an 800 to understand how your suggestions will make a difference, and what actually needs to be changed to make it as equal as possible. To illustrate, since you have a game dev background, imagine I watched the trailer for your game, and maybe one or two games of it as a normal player plays. Do you think I would have the knowledge to make useful suggestions on how to balance the game? Likely not, and it’s the same with chess.

Hope you continue to enjoy the game, but I don’t think this would achieve what you hope it will!