This is the best way to do it. The biggest blocker to folks taking advantage of the unlimited PTO is "my peers aren't doing it", which required PTO circumvents

This is the best way to do it. The biggest blocker to folks taking advantage of the unlimited PTO is "my peers aren't doing it", which required PTO circumvents neatly. And forcing people to take PTO (especially in 2+ week chunks) is also a good thing for the company: it helps the company identify and fix single points of failure in their employees skills and knowledge.