I totally agree that Egwene is a reasonable choice for the first person Rand meets after Dragonmount.

But Jason clearly said was (paraphrased): The last book ended with Rand on DM, looking at the sky and asking "why". This book begins with Rand coming down the mountain, like Moses, to have a long overdue chat with someone.

While I know the chapter names were not in order for the Great Hunt for the Seven Striped Lass, the first there was "Questions of Leadership", which is a fairly fitting title for a discussion between Rand and Egwene. These two are clearly the two big leaders of the Light, the on whom the Foresaken are likely going to concentrate the most in the next two books.

And like you, I'll be pissed if this is indeed the first chapter. It screws up the chronology way too much. A scene like this would work better later in the book, when the other characters are closer to Rand and Egwene's final chapters.

Here's a prediction: since the end point of ToM is definitely going to be ahead of that of tGS (since there has to be a reunion), I think the role Rand and Egwene will play is in making this reunion happen. It may well be that even with their differences, these two decide that they need to get their respective factions in order for a big meeting before they decide how to push against Shayol Ghul. Rand will deal with his in-house issues, followed by the Black Tower and maybe Arad Doman/Saldea. Egwene will whip up the Tower, work with Elayne on Andor and Cairhein. Once all this is set, they may plan for a big push to resolve the Seanchan issue (since they both will now think this is the thing that has to be tackled before TG). Decision made, they'll part to do their thing, and I think there on, we'll kind of loose focus on them and shift to Mat and Perrin. I think both their stories will move more quickly towards the end point of tGS (when the clouds break over DM, and the attack on the Tower is one day old).

Once Perrin and Mat have reached that point, we'll have their stories move into Rand and Egwene's plans for the BT and the Seanchan, which serves as an excellent reason for all the main characters to end in the same general location.