While I agree with you that there's no harm starting the season later, as far as I know, she will not have a bye to sectionals or Nationals as she hasn't been assigned enough (any) internationals for the upcoming season. This means she will need to compete in the NQS series to qualify. There are still a few more competitions in September and the beginning of October. I believe you can do 2 competitions to try and qualify.
I haven't really heard anything about Gracie recently. I know the articles point to her wanting to compete, so hopefully we will see her on the entry lists for one of the upcoming competitions:
Golden West September 1-3
Skate Houston September 1-4
Mid Atlantics September 8-10
Skate St. Moritz September 9-10
Broadmoor Fall Classic September 21-24
Texas Trophy October 4-6
LA Autumn Classic October 5-8
Boston Open October 5-8
So while there are a decent number of competitions left, many of them overlap. Also, as far as I know, she wasn't at Champs Camp this year. This makes sense because she hasn't done any summer comps and isn't assigned to internationals. I'm hoping it's just because she had a late start to the season, seemed to be injured (seen in the walking boot) in the Spring, etc. Either way, I hope she's happy in whatever she has decided to do!