What if the Cell arc started...

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

With the events of the future timeline? i.e Mecha Freeza and King Cold arrive on Earth and fight the Dragon Team, Future Goku arrives to kick their ass, he later dies of heart disease, the Dragon Team is killed by 17 and 18 six months later, we get to see the events of the Trunks TV special play out over the course of several episodes/chapters, THEN the Cell arc that we remember starts off, with Future Trunks' arrival. These are all of the manga chapters based on this new interpretation of the Cell arc.

NOTE: Chapter 330 in the manga is when Mecha Freeza and King Cold arrive, with Future Trunks arriving in the last page or so. Here, chapter 330 stays somewhat similar.

Chapter 330: Mecha Freeza and King Cold arrive, along with the rest of the Dragon Team. Piccolo and Vegeta start the fight first
Chapter 331: Piccolo and Vegeta vs King Cold
Chapter 332: More of Piccolo and Vegeta vs King Cold
Chapter 333: They defeat King Cold, and get the crap beaten out of them by Mecha Freeza
Chapter 334: The ass-beating continues
Chapter 335: Future Goku arrives and goes Super Saiyan, then fights Mecha Freeza
Chapter 336: More of SSJ Future Goku vs Mecha Freeza
Chapter 337: More of SSJ Future Goku vs Mecha Freeza, he gets defeated
Chapter 338: Future Goku returns home, and starts feeling a little ill
Chapter 339: Three months pass. His sickness gets worse, he can't even go Super Saiyan
Chapter 340: Future Goku finally dies
Chapter 341: 17 and 18 attack, and the entire Dragon Team is there - even SSJ Future Vegeta
Chapter 342: The humans are disposed of, and Future Piccolo and Vegeta are left. 17 beats the crap out of Piccolo
Chapter 343: Future Piccolo dies, leaving Future Vegeta as the only one left. Eventually, he is killed as well
Chapter 344: Future Gohan returns to Piccolo's corpse, and becomes a Super Saiyan. 17 and 18 find him and beat him to near death, but Gohan escapes
Chapter 345 - 350: Future Gohan progressively growing up and fighting 17 and 18 more, along with Trunks growing up
Chapter 351: Future Gohan trains Trunks, and the fight against 17 and 18 in that theme park happens
Chapter 352: More of Future Gohan and Trunks vs 17 and 18
Chapter 353: Future Gohan loses his arm, and is taken back to Capsule Corp.
Chapter 354: More training
Chapter 355: More training, then Future Gohan's final battle happens
Chapter 356: More of Future Gohan vs 17 and 18
Chapter 357: Even more of Future Gohan vs 17 and 18, even that cutscene in DBZ Kakarot where Future Gohan puts all of his ki into a One-Handed Masenko in a beautiful full-color, two page spread. After putting everything he had into that one attack, Gohan is killed by 17 and 18
Chapter 358: Future Trunks comes to, and sees Future Gohan's corpse. His extended transformation sequence from the anime is used, and Future Trunks becomes a Super Saiyan. 3 years pass, and Future Trunks goes off to fight 17 and 18 once more
Chapter 359: Future Trunks has 17 and 18 beat the ever-loving shit out of him, barely escaping. He gets all nice and healed up in a hospital, then goes back in time to save Goku. At the end of the chapter, Future Trunks arrives on Earth, and utters the famous words - "I've come to kill you."

[Ookalf]

Honestly, that all sounds it would end up feeling incredibly drawn out. You're talking about spending 30 chapters, over half a year in real time, just watching all of our heroes die painfully and pointlessly before we get to the actual main story.

As well, if the audience's viewpoint starts in Trunks's future, but then things play out like in the actual manga and the altered timeline ends up becoming the main story, with only a brief look back at where Trunks came from, then you might end up giving the impression that the narrative's essentially abandoning the world and characters we've come to know and love in favor of a bunch of replacements.

I'd say the version we got, where we start in the altered timeline and only get hints of what originally happened, works best.