There are hooks to do as you suggest, but it's incomplete. I know Jeff Davis is looking at some of the pieces.
There's a lot of duplicated functionality in the Content Repository (CMS/CR started as a standalone piece of software.) But the stuff there mostly/sorta works and is going to get better rapidly.
But, yes, using metadata to automagically generate forms and all that's has been/is being talked about and I think stuff will happen here in the next few months.
And, of course, if you're interested in helping out you are are more than welcome to do so.
