I can definitely understand wanting to keep some level of control over the nomination system, if only to avoid something like, well, Trump.
But doing that without it leading to that kind of obvious nepotism...yeah, that's tricky.
As for Avenatti, I gave up on him being serious about defending his client when I heard he wanted to get involved in politics. #TheResistance is as much a gravy train as selling MAGA hats via Facebook and selling the data to advertisers - if not more so (look how quickly Eric "game theory" Garland monetised his Twitter for a prime example), and it seems Avenatti wants in on that.
In 6 months time he'll probably be making nice with Louise Mensch and "Counter-Chekist".