While I agree with much of what you wrote, the Constitution does not require a January State of the Union address.

The Constitution says:

“He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them…”

In fact, from Jefferson’s first State of the Union (1801) until Taft’s last State of the Union (1912), it was a written report. It was not delivered in the form of a speech.

Although Washington and Adams addressed the Congress, Jefferson believed the President appearing before the representatives of the people was too closely akin to the British monarch’s custom of addressing the opening of Parliament with a list of policy mandates.

President Wilson gave a State of the Union speech in 1913, breaking the Jeffersonian tradition. But it didn’t represent an immediate departure from Jefferson. In 1919, 1920, 1924-1932, the State of the Union was again delivered in written report.

The State of the Union has traditionally been delivered orally to a joint session of Congress in the month of January since Roosevelt’s address in 1933.

But the Constitution does not require a January delivery, nor does it require the Supreme Court Justices or dignitaries or guests to be present at the delivery of the written report or the delivery of the speech.