The high rpm harmonic that occurs in inline sixes is inherent to inline sixes. This is why a pushrod inline's limit is typically below 6000. As tealcherokee said, you can push the rpm limit higher, but why bother? Yes it will still produce power at higher rpm's but the peak power still occurs at lower rpm's. Your analogy about climbing a sandy hill is a good point, but can't you keep the motor in its powerband while climbing a hill without resorting to overreving?
When it comes to ICE's, rather than looking at more fuel in = more power out, think of it as more fuel+air in = more power out. The Jeep inline six's head is not the best for breathability and there's not much to work with in the head as far as re-porting for maximum high end rpm's. This is one of the reasons the Hesco head is desirable. In the regular head, you can jam in as much fuel as you want, if the head can't get enough air through, your power isn't going to increase, agreed?
All of those high revvers are SOHC or DOHC without exception. I'm with you on the OHC idea for the 4.0. If it was doable in an efficient manner, the possibilities would be exciting...