The competition all those years ago was fantastic, but it was the Kubrick Default Theme that was focus of the competition, not the Classic Theme.

There was another big competition with the then new Sandbox Theme by Alex Skelton and Scott Allan Wallick. The goal was to do the same thing as mentioned in the article with the Sandbox Theme as a form of blank canvas in 2006. The work done with that Theme helped to bring attention to the WordPress.com "Extras" to pay for access to the stylesheet of any Theme and customize it.

Other competitions to repeat this have been hit and miss, but if done right, and there is reward enough for it, no reason why it can't be a huge success this time.

I've always loved CSS Zen Garden and have begged for something similar to demonstrate the power of WordPress Themes and designers since the introduction of WordPress 1.5 modular Themes. About time it got rocking!