1. Modern programming tools have a decades-long head start
2. Why denigrate group ware?
While this may not succeed, I have little reason to believe future improvements will all be evolutionary (I know you hedged there, saying "probably"). A lot can be learned from shedding assumptions. If the result of the project is inspiration for building tools on top of traditional programming models, the originators may be disappointed, but I'd call that success in basic research.
2. Why denigrate group ware?
While this may not succeed, I have little reason to believe future improvements will all be evolutionary (I know you hedged there, saying "probably"). A lot can be learned from shedding assumptions. If the result of the project is inspiration for building tools on top of traditional programming models, the originators may be disappointed, but I'd call that success in basic research.