Well I was not confident that my idea would get much support but I thought in the light of the previous discussion about Discourse not being considered for some situations then maybe a re-evaluation and experimentation might be useful - so I thought it was still worth a post. However, I thought such an effort could only be done by starting from scratch - BUT with input from existing Devs about what a core, minimal app might need.
I still feel a smaller, lighter and simpler app / package could be useful for smaller shops.
In the unlikely situation that others thought the idea was worth pursuing, I would help with the exercise as much as I could of course!