Turning the unrotated projectile into an early guided weapon

Could better guidance have made the unrotated projectile useful?

Yes; a beam-riding version was more technically plausible than an infrared seeker and could have provided useful early-war air defence.

The original launcher failed because its rockets had extremely poor guidance. A contemporary beam-riding system was closer to British technical reach than a modern infrared seeker. Steering the projectile along a directed beam would make the rocket a genuine anti-aircraft weapon rather than a random barrage. Such a system could have been particularly troublesome for large, relatively slow attackers during the early war.