With a clearly communicated vision joomla could easily become the most flexible & robust CMS.
My vision for Joomla:
- Refactor the IA to include multi-level categories & tagging
- Completely redesign the UX - Jquery/mootools based AJAX backend. The backend needs to have a very clear conceptual model that relates to the way the information will be presented. One of the biggest problems is that I frequently have to figure our what a radio button does by "trial and error = try this, save, refresh the frontend"
- Make the core bare essentials with a clear purpose - let 3rd party developers extend (they're better @ it anyways)
- Have 2 Joomla! versions - one that had current functions (a "starter pack") & 1 with bare minimal ("expert pack")
My main problem is that the current generation of Joomla! suffers from terrible usability. As a frequent admin & designer, I frequently have to (re)remember how to get stuff done in Joomla. I cannot expect my clients to be able to figure out how to use Joomla, I have to make tutorial videos to explain the frontend! The Backend is even more confusing and I think that it was OK 3 years ago - but it is time to see a new paradigm in Joomla usability.