The new proposed archive certainly sounds like a compromise that could possibly work, at least for deployment to production servers.
It isn't a compromise - all deployments should go through the management layer.
I do wonder why you think an .ear with an embedded data source is not an .ear as defined by Java EE 6. Isn't the META-INF folder in an .ear allowed or actually intended to contain files concerning meta issues (e.g. deployment)?
The -ds.xml and friends isn't part of the standard. If you want a datasource in your deployment use the EE 6 @DataSourceDefinition - but it won't be backed by a JCA container.
I think we have discussed this enough; there is a breakdown of the overall idea for the correct solution. Once somebody has a design - maybe even a proof-of-concept implementation - open a new thread.