Great, then how about they make a regulation to treat all packets the same rather than classifying internet as a utility and putting it under complete federal control.

Calling something net neutrality does not make it net neutrality. Bullet dodged.

What if they just made rules to prevent ISPs from blocking or throttling legal traffic or engaging in paid prioritization schemes?

That is what the 2015 regulations entailed.

Given the current political climate at the federal level, how could this succeed?

The federal politics has to change then. So we need to elect different people. In order to do that, public opinion needs to change. And to do that we need gestures like these. And probably a lot more, until everyone gets the idea.