Rather than scrolling through players at regular intervals like a robot, I think it would be interesting to change the scouting system – either by making it entirely dependent on the scout, who would view x players per day and from whom we’d select a contract for the best ones, or by having a weekly scouting tour from which we could select several players rather than just one.

You’ve already got that sorted. You’ve got your Junior scout if you don’t want to waste time on scouting.
Personally, I think the scouting system and/or the scout are working quite well at the moment.