I'll congratulate the OP on a well-researched, well-thought-out initial post. It's refreshing to see someone who's done their homework.

As for whether Hertz will come after you for claims they pay out under the state-minimum requirements, I'll confess that after nearly 16 years in the industry, I had never figured out the definitive answer to that question, but there was some discussion about how that works last month here:

Where can I buy daily 3rd party liability insurance for occasional car rental?

(In addition to the post # 18 linked, also see posts 11 and 13 in that same thread.)