I'm sure this sounds crazy & unrealistic, but I think an ephemeral goal should be to create a Complete, Final, Bug-Free, Totally Stable WordPress (Version: Forever).

I do understand (from the latest Matt M interview @ WP Weekly podcast, for one citation) that new technologies emerge which should be incorporated, such as when AJAX emerged and became useful for WP, and we all benefit from features being added. Still, on the other hand, when I first installed my first blogging software (WP 1.x years ago), as a n00b, I didn't realize I would be updating the code many times into the future unendingly. I thought that if I could have a blog that works, then it works, it's good, it's complete, stop there and just do the blog writing and need-not worry about the code again. That would be nice if it were real world.