IF it makes it into the game, it will probably be released far beyond the initial release date. This idea has great potential, and I hope your hard work receives compensation!
I just skimmed through the OP and I love the amount of thought that was put into this as well as suggesting that it would be possible to use things other than zombie if they just feel too overused. I had good fun in MineZ when I played, trying to stay alive while avoiding zombies (and those annoying bandits, they were mostly to blame for my demise) and that was just a few server plugins,. I definitely think this would be a good bonus mode or chucklefish doesn't feel like implementing it one HECK of a mod. Definitely hope something becomes of this as it is well done and has good potential.
No! Even if you play DayZ there are some things that you can only do in f.eks Starbound etc. and vice verca