"Perhaps the referral to this new theme as a “framework” is just incidental. "

Given how often the term is bandied about by people who aren't really familiar with it, that might be it.

I definitely agree there needs to be a new default theme. Previous history has shown that a plethora of new themes arise from the default (I prefer a fixed-up version of classic myself). Reading over the ticket, that seems more like what the person was proposing.