Other things I had in mind when I thought of that was a way to speed the game up a bit. When you have all the cards out in front, people can explain to new players what each do, and everyone looks at the same. It also adds a bit more player interaction to the game, as you compete to be able to get an occupation down you want. The benefit you see is the balancing mechanism. I believe the round robin selection works to do this.

A downside to this is a bit of the mystery of what players have at the start of the game is gone. That intrigue is removed, but player interaction increases. One could use dealing from the deck as replacements. For balance, you could show what can come out to players, and even possibly order for them coming out.

I will add here that the forcing to go for everything and diversifying is what is used to balance the card effects. If you can produce a ton of food, it has limits. It is nice, but still limits you. Get a large family and you have food issues, etc...