Maybe the Drupal Association needs to not only deal with the infrastructure but maybe also look at bringing on some full time coders whos job it is to not only code for Core, but also run around the edges and bring some of the more important contributed modules up to the next release.
AFAIK, that's against the bylaws. See http://association.drupal.org/about/introduction
It's a little confusing though since it says it can't direct "planning or development" but it could "Support development by awarding grants or paying wages." Perhaps someone from the association could clarify that. I'm not sure the association has funds to do this anyway.
The Drupal Association can hire people to work on core or contrib code. We haven't done so in the past that I can recall, but we will be voting on a proposal to fund the project module port in our next meeting. That module suite is key for running our web site - drupal.org The bylaw restriction you refer to is that the Association cannot dictate what gets committed and what does not. Thats left up the community, as has always been the case.