Matt,
my proposal is indeed different than gapped with fading. I agree that gapped fading solves similar issues when fading of songs is ok, but fading is not ok for many circumstances.
I think my proposal is better than the current state of "play no silent" + "gapped", under any condition. Best case, the end of song silence MC cuts, let's call it file silence, is very close to real silence, so there is no change in behavior if MC transitions from end of file silence to real silence. However, if there is something MC is cutting off incorrect, my proposal, fading from "end of file silence" to real silence, would improve the result. For example this happens in songs that already have a fade in them at the end. Also, if there is a little bit low background noise, MC is cutting, there will be a transition from "file silence" to real silence, pretty much not hearable but it would eliminate sudden pops going from "file silence" to real silence abruptly. I don't see any circumstances where this behavior is not prefered for "play not silence" + "gapped" setting, so I will use it without a new switch as default.
Note that my proposal is something that should be active only when "play no silent" + "gapped" are active at the same time.