Personally I think all spells on the sorcerer list should have a "special" that can be activated by sorcery points. There's no "cognitive complexity" issue at all. If you aren't a sorcerer, it doesn't apply to you. Sorcerers have magic in their blood and can manipulate spells in a way no one else can. The current metamagic options are nice, but very limited.
When I have time I plan on going through the sorcerer spell list and adding "Sorcerer Specials" to all of them that it seems reasonable to do so.
But that's mainly a personal preference, as I like a higher level of magic in my campaigns. The special would probably be inappropriate in a campaign that didn't have the option on other spells, so feel free to ignore it. (Although I think will change that part of the spell in my game so that using the special will change the spell to an Action - it's generally better not to be able to move other creatures around using a bonus action.)
I really think that making the base cantrip an Action spell (instead of Bonus+movement) makes it far less useful, to the point I wouldn't take it on one of my characters.
The weight limit is exactly the same as a characters weight limit using their Strength stat, it just uses their casting stat since it's a magical effect. But perhaps it could be handled in a simpler way.
Scaling distance is no more complicated than scaling damage that is already used on current offensive cantrips.
