I think having a clear statement of the vision for the Lucee language would help head off a lot of the sorts of unproductive discussions that quickly go off into the weeds, yes. It doesn’t have to be a thesis, just some guiding principles that give a sense of what is “possible” (within the context of cleaning up CFML to create Lucee) and what should be considered “off the table”.
That way, even if folks don’t agree with that published philosophy, discussions could at least be conducted within those boundaries – which should help keep things more on-topic.