What standard of notability would you propose?

I think Wikipedia's current standard in this area is fine.

But I also think Wikipedia has historically mixed up discussion of notability and verifiability standards in a way that has been unhelpful to both.

To be the most useful you have to go a bit beyond the edges of what a reader will want, to avoid holes. That means you should have stubs up already about barely-notable people who are in the news. That provides a meeting spot with a talk page for people to discuss or build the actual article. If in a year the article didn't get any traction and the person is out of the news cycle, delete it.

Wiki is for its users, and that means as casual editors, not just the dedicated editors who think they own it. That means that the rules for casuals have to be quite relaxed in enforcement.