Tom, yes using CVS in that fashion is probably possible, but it's not
how it's typically used, and I don't see any advantage to that scheme
either. It doesn't really solve any problems.
People who aren't familiar with CVS, well, generally they don't use
it. They download a tarball instead. So I think perhaps what you
should really asking for, is more rapid release of point releases,
with tarballs, plus also some clear instructions on the website for
how to properly yank different releases out of cvs, since some people
definitely will want to do that.
(Personally, I never use source tarballs when I can pull a release
from CVS instead. CVS is just better.)