For reference, this is what I was talking about:
http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/9015

If the plan is to make this them into anything like these themes, then I stand by my statement. From the looks of the comments in that trac ticket, that seems to be the plan.

EDIT: Reading over the comments of that trac ticket again gives me the impression that maybe they're just looking to update the default theme to something with more solid code, and a prettier interface. Perhaps the referral to this new theme as a "framework" is just incidental. If so, then my comment doesn't apply.

That's the "what". I'll try to explain the "why" some other time.