@Don ~ Ted Clayton's "Work is being done, and the outlines of an ‘intentional’ structure & functionality are coming into view", whatever that means, doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. In fact, quite the opposite. So if WP isn't willing to put any effort into the back-end plugins interface and repository (have you had any dialogue with them on this issue?), why not (why not anyway), add additional functionality to your website and offer plugin authors an alternative WP repository? One which doesn't make them "jump through hoops to give stuff away" -- with all the necessary caveats of course. One thing I would caution though, you're going to need a lot better taxonomy than the native WP repository provides. And also, if it fills up with thinly disguised freemium and purely commercial plugins, it won't be very popular. At least not for very long... 8^)