Simplify Drupal by Building Core Features with Building Blocks

It takes a very long (and enlightening and entertaining and informative) article to get there, but Jeff Eaton makes the key point which i think we all know in Drupal but can have trouble expressing. This is the key big picture for very many of our Drupal 8 initiatives:

We can simplify our code and serve site-builders more effectively by strengthening the building block functionality that comes with core, replacing the "canned" features like Blog and Forum with ones constructed from the building blocks, then shedding the canned feature modules that we've been dragging along for years. Finally, using use-case targeted installation profiles to give Drupal evaluators and new site builders a "running start" with common types of sites would help smooth our notoriously brutal learning curve.

http://www.lullabot.com/articles/understanding-8-where-drupal-and-where-its-going