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*changing all flying spells so that they empower flying vehicles only (sharpening the pulp elements, if you will)
I can't see the reason why this would be the case. You can probably get the net effect, tho, by tying this to a ritual, rather than a spell. Give the ritual a fairly long casting time a la 4E, make it that maintaining oneself aloft requires concentration (just like sustaining a spell). With a vehicle, the pilot probably has to maintain the concentration, but the process on a vehicle (which is clearly much more complex and laborious) might mean it's a move action for the pilot.

*modify shapeshifting spells a la AE so that one spell = one form change, possibly with a shapeshifter class
That's one way, but not necessarily the best way. It doesn't address the fact that shifting magic still can become something of a catchall for any number of secondary physical abilities, such as flying, water breathing, and darkvision, and as a general buff.

*decrease area spells while boosting spellcaster ability so that you affect less targets, but get to blast a lot longer
Not sure this will work. First: how often do you plan encounters where area spells are really useful? Standard 3.5 encounter design doesn't make this that valuable. Second, and perhaps more important, is scaling damage. Now, if the plan would be to give something like 4E at-wills, where the damage remains proportionate to the standard damage for the other classes...cool.

*remove teleportation magic as a spell, while putting in side dimensions to travel through (adventure possibilities increase!) and/or teleport circles only
I think the teleport circles only could work. The side dimensions...not so much. This feels like just another set of random wilderness encounters...to be sure, rather more exotic ones, but still, primarily just random encounters. At least for casual teleports. Something like this might work for planar travel, tho...take the concept of the fairy ring. The ring is a portal to another plane...it's not created by a caster, it's not exactly controlled. That might be the common means to shift between a few significant planes. Then, you have to travel through them to find portals to most planes. Somewhat similar in concept, but it's now more limited, to when the party actually wants to do some planar travel.

*increase mind-reading spells and abilities - but only as a form of mental torture
Why? Sure, I can see extended mental combats, as the caster tries to extract information and the victim tries to prevent it...and that can easily be conceived as agonizing. I can see mind-affecting torture spells too...spells explicitly designed to make the victim think horrible things are happening, but in fact, no actual physical harm is being done.

*allow non-spellcasters to occasionally counter spells
Based on what? I don't really see this one at all.

*add in abilities that improve spell effects if the player describes a new and cool desired result
What might work is to extend Modify Spell, which creates a reasonable cost aspect, so that new Modify Spell tricks can be applied to certain spell *types*...like shaping a hole in an area spell, or doing a 'shadow area' in a burst, so perhaps it's only a 180 degree effect from the point of origin, not 360 degrees.

*give spellcasters the ability to cast multiple times a round eventually with single-target spells (same spell only, a la full round fighter attacks, doing less damage)
4E at-wills, basically. I've always liked this idea.

*allow casters flexibility to increase/decrease spell parameters at some sort of cheap but effective cost - like hit points or use of a feat - or just by picking parameters for the spell itself to change at the moment of creation. Perhaps instead of heightening or diminishing per the spell's formula, you can choose parameter shifts at that point.
If you take this too far, you need a free-form magical system.

And, saving this one for last...
*revamp damage types so that there are fewer
Interesting. Extremely complex, with extensive ripple effects. I assume that, for the most part, we're talking about damage types from spells primarily. Lessee...

Let's combine, strangely enough, fire, lightning, and cold. They're all 'thermal'...or some kinda term. Cold's always been a weak one, as cold isn't an energy but an absence of energy.

Force, positive, sonic, and untyped all become one type, a 'pure magic energy' type.

Acid and poison (for cases where poison does damage, rather than having other effects) are fairly natural roll-ups.

Negative probably remains as-is, altho I'd give it a flavor closer to 4E necrotic or AE Dark.

Do we really need the elemental damage types of air, water, and earth? I've never been fond of them.

This would force a whoooole lot of rules rewrites, tho.