What is a thin screen going to accomplish on the beaches? And if they don’t try to stop the Japanese on the beaches where in Luzon do they try to stop them? If they don’t stop them in Luzon then the Japanese take over the US air and naval bases outside of Bataan/Corregidor and the US is no longer a threat to Japanese sea lanes.
This was the whole concept of Warplan Orange. The mission of the US forces in the Philippines was to slow down the Japanese advance, prevent access to Manila Bay, and await the relief fleet that would be sent by the US Navy. The whole plan was to withdraw to Bataan, stockpiling supplies and munitions, and hunker down. MacArthur in 1940 unilaterally decided on a whole new defense plan, which was to contest the beaches. However, the Philippine Army was nowhere ready for these type of operations by the onset of the war. Then right after the first Japanese forces land, MacArthur changes his mind and orders an evacuation to Bataan, wasting 2-3 weeks of time to move supplies, prepare positions and the like. Total lunacy.
US forces actually managed to hold out for 4 months until the fall of Bataan with inadequate rations, low ammunition stockpiles and poorly prepared positions. Under Warplan Orange and with a properly prepared position at Bataan, the US Army envisioned that its forces could hold out for at least 6 months. If MacArthur had followed Warplan Orange, it is very likely that the US forces could have held out until June/July timeframe.
The IJN ships and IJNAF were on an extremely tight time-table to accomplish all of the initial war objectives. As it was, the Japanese withdrew ground forces and much of its airpower from the Philippines and advanced their timetable to invade the DEI. Would the Allies been able to put up a better defense if given an additional 4-6 weeks to prepare? Would Admiral Doorman been able to integrate the ABDA fleet into a functional unit in that time?