Hi Jon,
I would go with you, if I were making some commercial/industrial products, where reliability matters. And taking risks / pushing limits / going unconventional isn't allowed.
But hey this is hobby project. If it fail some-day, then no worries, we would switch to better design then.
And here you shouldn't put off beginners by "Nope, it won't work" , if it could probably works for days. You better mention that too.
You seem to go with one general formula -- "PIC -- Direct Drive Motor = NO NO) disregarding any circuit data (like, the inductance and resistance of the Motor , series resistance added , the supply voltage, the thermal capacity of internal ESD diodes etc)