I think what is missing is a distinction between Core (mostly APIs), core modules (these use the APIs to provide "essential" services and are on the critical path for a new release, and contrib modules which provide other more niche services and are not on the critical path.
 
For example I consider ecommerce to be core but many of its pieces to be contrib.


From: development-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Konstantin Käfer
Sent: Friday, July 07, 2006 5:03 PM
To: development@drupal.org
Subject: Re: [development] Modules for Core

Hi,

I'm fine with seeing forum.module and aggregator.module being removed
too. 

I disagree with removing the forum.module. Drupal's slogan is "community plumbing" which actually implies that you can create a community site (WITH a forum) out of the box.

Konstantin