I'm interested to see what the come up with. Although I must say, if they introduce a new framework and start releasing canonical plugins... they are going to start stepping on the toes of the theme and plugin developers that make WordPress so great.

Step on their toes, they quit releasing themes and plugins. If they quit releasing themes and plugins... WordPress just won't be as cool regardless of how good a default theme framework or the canonical plugins are.

Honestly I think Matt and Co. need to focus on the core and leave the rest to the community.