@Ipstenu - I think WordPress definitely needs to ship with a default theme but in reality, no plug-ins need to be bundled with WordPress to have it function well out of the box as in a new install. Thankfully, at some point in the future, I think Akismet will not be bundled with WordPress. As for Hello Dolly, I think it's going to take pulling more teeth to get that out of the core package despite the plug-in not really causing any technical issues. It's just an annoyance more than anything.