I want to thank everybody for their input. Given the responses I've gotten, I can say that I am formulating (what I believe) will meet most if not all of these goals. I need to brainstorm some more and no doubt it will be months before I actually start sharing my thoughts about what it is I have in mind. If anyone thinks there might be anything else they'd like to share, please do.
I'm a bit perplexed by your tone throughout this thread.
What exactly are you formulating? A spec of some sort? Are you a software developer who actually intends to follow through on whatever it is that you "have in mind"? Do you plan on it being commercial or free? OpenSource?
I would be interested in hearing more about what your objectives and goals are. I *think* you are just wanting to help articulate what is needed by the community - but may I suggest such efforts are a collective process, not something to take on in isolation. I've edited this post because after looking at your profile, I see you are recent to the scene (as am I) and have not had a CC show - so I'm now clearer that you are not a developer, but just interested in helping clarify needs and goals. But I will tell you that given the amount of work in actually writing such software, the author will ultimately be more familiar with the details and practical challenges and opinionated with the approaches and tradeoffs they will take. Such software is a LOT of work.
Look forward to seeing what you formulate. Hopefully by then my software will already be out there for folks to try out.
-P