A pod doesnt make much sense to me as well because its hard to manage with less tether tension. Also it needs to be strong and lightweight, and that is at odds with design requirements of it being agile and powerful.
But still, ground based steering has its own issues. I know some
AWE companies went there earlier and then moved on. I believe E-Kite (now merged with Kitemill) did this. But of course they did not have OKE tech (no sarcasm intended).