I'm generally suspicious of any visa program specifically designed to address "shortages" of workers in particular fields/professions. I wouldn't have a problem with a points system for general, skilled immigration though.
However, that appears to be unlikely at this moment. If I had to tinker with the system, I'd say that the two biggest problems are 1) the visa gives the employer too much control over the employee's right to reside in the US, and 2) the "prevailing wage" requirement isn't effective.
The "indentured" problem is easily solved, just award the visa directly to the employee with full rights to reside in the US for the duration of the visa.
The "prevailing wage" problem is a little more complicated. The first big problem is that this requirements is easily circumvented. At my organization, there are different salary tiers for programmers. It would be trivial to hire an expert at a lower level and claim you are paying the prevailing wage.
A more fundamental problem is that even an honest attempt to pay the "prevailing wage" can still lead to wage stagnation across the field. Generally, when a "shortage" occurs, wages rise and new people are attracted to the field. One reason for the "shortage" of software developers is that US citizens with the talent do this can find equal or greater wages with better career stability in other fields.
Wages need to rise to draw them back into software, but if employers are able to use visas to pay "market rate", this increase may not happen - or if it does, the rate of increase may be diminished.
To solve this, I'd instead use a pay index that includes fields outside of programming, and set a high floor for visas. For instance, you might decide that 120K+ a year is the minimum salary allowable for an H1B (necessary, not sufficient). I know many employers will object vehemently to this, but keep in mind, they are arguing for a specialized visa that bypasses the normal immigration system, justified by the claim that these are highly educated, critical workers that employers can't find at any price. Hard to believe that these highly educated workers are really so hard to find if you object to paying 2/3 of what a 24 year old out of a top law school would earn (yes, I know, that's only the top law grads, but nobody is claiming that there's a shortage of middle tier law grads, we're talking about a shortage of critical, highly educated workers.
However, that appears to be unlikely at this moment. If I had to tinker with the system, I'd say that the two biggest problems are 1) the visa gives the employer too much control over the employee's right to reside in the US, and 2) the "prevailing wage" requirement isn't effective.
The "indentured" problem is easily solved, just award the visa directly to the employee with full rights to reside in the US for the duration of the visa.
The "prevailing wage" problem is a little more complicated. The first big problem is that this requirements is easily circumvented. At my organization, there are different salary tiers for programmers. It would be trivial to hire an expert at a lower level and claim you are paying the prevailing wage.
A more fundamental problem is that even an honest attempt to pay the "prevailing wage" can still lead to wage stagnation across the field. Generally, when a "shortage" occurs, wages rise and new people are attracted to the field. One reason for the "shortage" of software developers is that US citizens with the talent do this can find equal or greater wages with better career stability in other fields.
Wages need to rise to draw them back into software, but if employers are able to use visas to pay "market rate", this increase may not happen - or if it does, the rate of increase may be diminished.
To solve this, I'd instead use a pay index that includes fields outside of programming, and set a high floor for visas. For instance, you might decide that 120K+ a year is the minimum salary allowable for an H1B (necessary, not sufficient). I know many employers will object vehemently to this, but keep in mind, they are arguing for a specialized visa that bypasses the normal immigration system, justified by the claim that these are highly educated, critical workers that employers can't find at any price. Hard to believe that these highly educated workers are really so hard to find if you object to paying 2/3 of what a 24 year old out of a top law school would earn (yes, I know, that's only the top law grads, but nobody is claiming that there's a shortage of middle tier law grads, we're talking about a shortage of critical, highly educated workers.