@Drew Jaynes - Yes, even a pseudo-customized experience would be better than segmenting everything into core plugins or optional modules.

@Carl Hancock - That's my feeling as well. Because of the large third party ecosystem and the economy surrounding WordPress, forking it just isn't going to get anyone very far. However, I love seeing things like Ghost come up where they have a clean slate. Fresh code and a fresh take on how to accomplish tasks while revamping the publishing experience. It will be interesting to see how well Ghost is received after it hits the public's hands. With the financial backing, I imagine John is now under a lot of pressure to deliver the goods.

I outlined the development of Core Plugins because somewhere within that idea, was the revelation of taking out some functionality from WordPress and applying it to a plugin. But as we can see, a few years later development of Core Plugins has really stagnated. Too much effort directed to core and not enough left over for those plugins.

@John Blackbourn - You raise some good points and in fact, I'm going to outline a list of things that I wouldn't mind seeing removed from WordPress and either put into a plugin or just disappearing entirely. But like I mentioned in the post, the things I don't use and would like to see be put into a plugin are the same things my neighbor probably uses every day. Although with what happened to the Blogroll/Links area in WordPress, it's been proven that longstanding functionality can be removed from WordPress.

@MK Safi - That video is what got me excited to try out Ghost. If John can nail down the publishing experience and make it better than what WordPress offers, he could be really onto something. Funny you mention WordPress.com because I completely agree with you. One day, I decided to reopen my account on .com and was amazed at everything that was put in front of me. To put it bluntly, it's a cluster#$@!. I have no idea how new users can easily navigate around and accomplish tasks using WordPress.com.