Nightmare: I'm not sure if you noticed, but the
OP and the quoted studies aren't talking about completely removing homework; only removing it for the younger grades. I can see a lot of wisdom in that. You really don't learn much in the first few grades besides basic language and arithmetic skills, and I can well believe that the hours of homework that young children, say ages 5-10, put in doesn't significantly improve their understanding. What's more important in those early years is the mentality and curiosity that develop. If you can get a child interested in learning, it wouldn't matter if you taught them nothing but juggling for those first five years, they'd still end up a well-educated person by adulthood; and they'd be a great juggler to boot.
The atoms that make up you and me were born in the hearts of suns many times greater than ours, and in time our atoms will once again reside amongst the stars. Life is but an idle dalliance of the cosmos, frail, and soon forgotten. We have been set adrift in an ocean whose tides we are only beginning to comprehend and with that maturity has come the realization that we are, at least for now, alone. In that loneliness, it falls to us to shine as brightly as the stars from which we came.