The iron headers could absolutely be heat soaking the engine bay, especially if the timing is a bit retarded and generating heat and/or you have an exit airflow problem
1 - Be certain your fan isn't on backwards (silly but have seen it)
2 - Make sure your ignition advance at cruise is adequate
3 - You could make a small air dam under the bumper, maybe adapt something, that creates low pressure at speed to push the air downward
4 - If it is just heat soak, ceramic coating the manifolds could help.
5 - I have never seen a heater hose loop or bypass cause overheating. The heater hose does go back into the pump, but it would cool the water somewhat, easy enough to buy a shutoff and splice it in.
6 - The bypass I suppose could be restricted, or even eliminated if you had an adequate hole in the thermostat, but the area it provides is small compared to the thermostat hole when open, and with the pump pushing, I'd be surprised to hear that being an issue. Be very careful though, if you restrict or eliminate too much, your heater core may not be happy.
With all that, if cool air allows it to run thermostat temp, I would think you have an airflow problem, could be too tight of fins in the radiator, backwards fan, or an exit airflow issue