I don't believe the husks were necessary as actual nourishment, and I
would say you are turning one component into a big deal. The actual
seed is well protected by multiple layers. Those layers over millions
of years of evolution could have served many purposes, like the hooks
on cockleburs that both served as a propagation vector and prevented
eating. This is similar to the omnivore principle, where
overspecialization eventually led to extinction. The thick-skinned
gymnosperms had many survival strategies, and hanging on to archaic
traits is a valuable asset in adverse conditions. For example, the
previously mentioned page states that osage orange somehow survived
the extinction of woolly mammoths until the horse was imported from
Europe, some 6,000 years without any transport mechanism. Obviously
the plant was able to grow, but probably not with the genetic
distribution needed for homogenity. This may explain why subspecies
arise. Plants typically devote a good part of their metabolic product
to scattering their seeds effectively, and there is apparently a good
reason for it.

-- Gnarlie