I can agree to that.
The situation seems to be that when a person is in the negative, they are in constant fear that someone will enforce the clock rule even if they didn't do it immediately. (I still say that with fast play they can get themselves out of this situation, but that's another discussion....)
So, a proposed change: When someone goes negative, the system automatically proposes a vote (with an obvious message that a vote is taking place) to extend the time of that player. If any person explicitly votes no, the out of time player will be kicked, just as if someone explicitly kicked them. If a player takes 2 turns, the system will treat it as a "yes" vote. (2 turns, because a person may want to make their move first while their clock is running, and think about the options.) If all players agree to let the time be extended, the clock will be set to the amount of time that is added per move. IE, if playing a 1 move per day game, their clock will be set to 24:00:00. If playing a game of 00:05:00 with 30 seconds added per turn, their clock would be set to 0:30.
If, during the time that the vote is taking place, the person is able to get back to a positive clock (through normal fast play), the vote will be discarded.
This will remove the fear, and allow a player who had an extended period of not making a move be able to maintain a positive clock if they play at the speed they agreed to. If they continue to play slower, they will again go into the negative and be subject to being kicked.
I don't think this will affect tournament play, as those clocks are a set time with 0:00 added each turn, so 1 second after the reset they'd be out of time again, and in the case of a game ending on total time the person who has the most time remaining is declared the winner. I could be wrong on this, though.
Issues that I see that will need to be addressed:
If a person constantly times out, but people want to allow them to play, will the obvious vote message become annoying?
How should Karma be addressed? If a player times out, gets the vote to be reset, and times out again should this be 1 out of time penalty or 2?
If more than one player goes negative while the vote is being taken, does a separate vote need to be taken?
Also, please never forget that
the clock rule is a well-documented rule that each player is reminded of as they join every table. (Gee, your honor, I normally take highways when I travel, I took a turn onto a road with a clearly posted lower speed limit. The police officer following me didn't immediately pull me over for speeding, so I shouldn't have to pay this speeding ticket I got 10 miles later, right?)
-----------------
Side notes: The excuses I see of "I didn't realize the time limit for this game" and "I couldn't ask because of a language barrier" are flimsy at best. The time is easily stated, and Google Translate is a thing.