Can Horde Chess be salvaged? Personally, I think not. It's not about statistics: it's just about strategy.

White's winning strategy is simple. In essence it's all about deflection and sacrifice. Bear in mind that black's pawns stay on the files they start on unless white allows them to move somewhere else. White needs to clear a path to get behind black's pawn to start eating from the back. So White has to sacrifice to cause those deflections.

White's opening moves setup and execute sacrifices. If the sacrifices are not accepted then captures can force the same thing. Noth these deflect black's pawns diagonally off to both sides of some chosen file. This causes that file to be become more thinly populated by Black pawns. Also pawns on adjacent files need to be deflected away or encouraged to advance so that they no longer protect the pawns (especially the back pawns) on the chosen file and the total number of defenders on that file is reduced. Once the file is chipped away enough, the heavy pieces infiltrate straight along the file - perhaps with final sacrifices to get the queen to the back. It is then a simply mopping up operation working from the back of the horde forwards, just making sure that pawns are picked off in a reasonable order that doesn't allow black any chances of queening or stalemate.

The number of defenders on each file are 3-6-5-7-7-5-6-3. The f-file is my favourite to target though and I may get the h-file en route instead.

Can this strategy be stopped? I don't think so, not with the existing rules.