@Ron - I didn't mention it but that is probably the largest deterrent for this idea. However, why does phpBB3 have a group of people dedicated to performing these roles for free on their time. I think WordPress could do the same. Don't know who would want to do it though.

@Nitin Reddy Katkam - I wouldn't want that to happen and if handled correctly, it wouldn't happen. But I see where you're coming from.

@Andrea_R - The only reason it is not urgent right now is because none of the worst case scenario has happened yet. I think for it to work and to get a team together, money would have to be involved but I'm not sure Automattic and its investors would like to put money down that hole.

Approved plugin frameworks is something I haven't heard of. But I think that is a large part of the problem. Crappy coded plugins in the repository which work but don't work in the way that they should and then others coming along using those as examples to build on. This is a bad domino effect where at some point, those dominoes will fall.