good post and time will tell on a few things you talked about. New World Studio and PixieViewer - it's easy to "talk" about making commercial versions but different to succeed at it. you mentioned things like Tipodean which just never actually made it - i do hope PixieViewer does lead to something usable by the masses
a great example of someone that didn't talk about making a commercial solution and instead actually made a commercial solution is Alina of the Lumiya Viewer
that's a great product which keeps improving and certainly commercial