Interestingly they can also effectively communicate well before they can vocalise words. A baby can sign reliably at 7-9 months but typically won't be able to speak until 12 months.
Yes! Signing (albeit with a small vocabulary) was surprisingly successful with my infant daughter, over 20 years ago. I was initially skeptical, but it worked really well. Not sure if it reduced my infant daughter's communication frustrations, but it certainly helped her parents feel less frustrated.
Or maybe it's not the brain is to small, but that the brain is still growing and therefore subject to enough noise to make actions now impossible for the sake of the future.
Anyway, hard to conclude, just think your logic is missing a little.