I toyed with this ideal a decade ago. It fits my profession since I'm also a geotechnical engineer and groundwater flow through soil is similar to wort flow through a grain bed.
Sure, this option reduces the potential to hydraulically compact the grain bed. However, the intake for the wort discharge at the top of the bed is not easy to accomplish. In addition, you would eventually have to drain the bed from the bottom or you would not be able to get the final runnings out of the bed.
With proper control and monitoring of the flow rate through the bed, you can easily avoid compacting the grain bed. My bottom line was that the upflow design was not worth the effort.