I think it would be great if there was a concerted effort to do such a reimplementation (maybe in clojure, but maybe in another language, eg Python). This may be done in the style of NeoVim, I am sure a similar or even greater amount of funds could be fundraised if a project leader with sufficient credentials steps up to do it.
The challenges are of course formidable, as detailed in TFA. Any such project would have to maintain almost full backwards compatibility, unless the huge amount of work that has gone into CTAN is to be lost.
The phrase existed long before, but as far as I know with a somewhat different meaning, due to the Usenet connotation of "article". I was referring specifically to the usage in the comments of a news post, applied to people who have only read the other comments but not the actual article.
The challenges are of course formidable, as detailed in TFA. Any such project would have to maintain almost full backwards compatibility, unless the huge amount of work that has gone into CTAN is to be lost.