There isn't much study of this line of the Sicilian. We should make that our goal.

Interesting. The problem may be that 1: white is ahead in development and 2: he'll be able to mass his pieces in the center (eg. Ne4 will soon be available, given the central tension) and eye all areas of the board (kingside, queenside, and center, particularly the d6 square). It does seem a little far-fethced that black's somewhat underdeveloped position will be capable of an attack, but it's interesting; had never seen anything like this before.

To be fair, I believe that's the problem faced in every Sicilian variation. The real problem is the weakness  of d6. In all of the games I've seen and most of my test runs vs a computer seem to show that d6 can become an outpost for White. 

That is true, but here black is loosening his position more than usual.