I was trying to sketch out a variant of Split Second a while back and it might have worked as a compromise for the must-answer-early-buzz but without interrupting the question. Although it would stray from the roots of the game slightly, I would have the contestant lock in which choice with one of three buttons.
When the question is finished, the board would dim all the choices except the one selected by the fastest finger, who would answer the question. The second fastest would answer their selection or pick-up an incorrect answer by the first player. The final player would get the remaining choice by default, but could answer any other unanswered choice. Because we aren't using artboards or an Amiga Video Toaster mosaic/zoom/crunch, the display would have only the available choices would be "lit up" for the contestant.
In the Countdown Round, players are still selecting which multiple choice clue, but the fastest player would then advance to the second player's selection to attempt to steal that, then the third. Essentially, the same as the money/points round, but a sweep of the board would have to be solved in the order each was buzzed in. The second or third player would not be able to answer the question if a previous player advanced to their selection and answered it properly, even if there is a leftover choice still on the board.
So it isn't a buzzer-mashing exercise, but a calculated selection to ferret out the potentially easier response. It doesn't allow for "mindbender" or "give me one of the 3..." type questions, unless you just convert that to a possible "push the center button first."
It does bring in some slight inequities, but it does make the decision part more "split second" if we must also have the full question read.
