Is using vinegar a viable way to reduce burning? How would it affect taste?
The OP's answer is correct that this theoretically should have an effect, but I have my doubts about its practicality for a few reasons:


The goal is supposedly to "reduce burning," which implies carbonization.  Carbonization happens most rapidly at higher temperatures (over 400F or so) compared to the ideal temperatures for Maillard reactions.  Thus, you can very easily go quickly from underdone to burnt at very high temperatures.  Decreasing Maillard reactions is not the problem; it's too high of a temperature leading to carbonization.  Wilson should just turn down the heat.  Increasing Maillard will just make more of a thicker "brown crust" giving the meatballs more of a "fried" texture.  Most people wouldn't find that too objectionable.
Vinegar is a rather dilute acid and is mostly water.  Water will also inhibit the Maillard reactions by lowering the surface temperature of the meatballs.  Effectively, before the meatballs can begin browning again, the water will mostly need to be evaporated, so the surface will "steam" for a bit at lower temperatures, again inhibiting browning.  Anyhow, the larger problem with this from a practical standpoint is splatter.  Introducing a bunch of mostly water onto a food right before frying will cause that water to vaporize when coming in contact with the oil and splattering.  Also, the question is how much this acid will penetrate the meat surface and prevent browning vs. being effectively washed off during this vaporization and splattering.  Unless you let the meatballs sit and absorb the acid for a few minutes before returning to the pan, I imagine most of the vinegar would just come off and be ineffective.
Even presuming that the acid stays on the meatballs and that we actually want to inhibit Maillard reactions (which I'm not sure we do), I don't know how effective a little bit of surface acidity is really going to be in this case.  Keep in mind that many, many people prepare meat in marinades before cooking, which often contain acidity.  While most people dry the meat before cooking, this surface acidity obviously doesn't seem to get too much in the way of browning and flavor reactions, or else people wouldn't put so much acid in marinades.  The uneven surface of meatballs may lead to a little more absorption of acid than a solid cut of meat, but again I have some doubts about the magnitude of the effect.


Bottom line: I suppose this might delay browning for a couple minutes, at the risk of (maybe significant) splattering.  It will NOT be very effective at stopping burning if the oil is too hot.  The flavor of the meatballs shouldn't be affected (except from the direct flavor of the vinegar), other than the outside tasting like it was browned slightly less.

As OP's link in the answer notes, there are other ways to reduce the speed of Maillard reactions, notably reducing temperature of the pan and/or removing the meatballs and letting them rest (to cool the surface down a bit while some heat migrates inward) before finishing cooking.  Reducing temperature seems a much easier and more effective solution in this case.  Another alternative would just be to remove them from the pan and finish cooking in a low oven: the frying is to obtain the browned outer crust, and if that's done, there's no need to keep frying.

House's solution -- while technically intriguing -- seems overly complex and unlikely to be practical, but then again, that's why people tend to watch House....