Great post but at this point I feel everyone does what they do and we have to "slightly fork" and make improvements on our own. If something tests out to be great and stable then we can give it back to eqemu and they may implement it in their code base.
I am working on a classic server too so I would love to work with you to inprove things (and learn from you). Hit me up here or
nostalgiaeq@gmail.com. Mabye we can also work on a standardized classic database (many have tried and all have failed thus far lol) which would be a huge boon to the community.