Understadn what your saying Dave, but largely the 'useful'code is really provided by the Content Repository.
After a failed bid for a project I looked into CMS code in some detail..
My scientific assessment was .... 'shite'.....
Yes, there are bits and peices I wouldn't want to write again, but nothing of any significance.
This is compunded because the actual design (such as it was) they were working to was flawed.. hence lots of the code was written with an (arguably) floored design in place.
I should add I'm not interested in arguing about the state of old code. I am however *very* interested in content management!
What I'm saying is that were a new design/approach and flexible model being propsed I and some of my resources would be prepared to put in effort to write it...
If the proposal is to re-work/develop based on whats there now... then you're on your own ;) (meant nicely)
I really would encourage a design/method/architecture that we can get people to rally around... a re-hack of bad code (that virtually everyone has lost faith in or has a horror story for) is not a good idea.... and I couldn't justify resources for that...
I expect there a few other companies with the same opinion.
