My belief (which opposes the 'fact' stated above) is that if there was virtually complete documentation of what exists, and full disclosure of additions and modifications, a cloning could be achieved. Of course it would take a huge capital and time investment, but the payoff would likely be worth it.
Well, it's lovely to know that we don't exist <grin>.
To be honest, I'm a bit troubled by your remark. I think Wine is a lot further along than you, and most other people, seem to realize; further, we're not just lazing around waiting for help.
Wine is not perfect; while many apps 'just work', most have some small flaws, and many don't work at all.
Now we can probably never make it 'perfect'; that much of the findings of fact is acurrate, imo.
However, a whole lot of things 'just work' right now, and nearly everything else can be made to work with only a modest amount of elbow grease.
Further, I think we are well on our way to making most things work well enough to slash the applications barrier to entry drastically.
Wine absolutely needs a huge investment of time and money. But it's had a huge investment of time from the folks reading this list (as well as others). Further, it's fair to say that every CodeWeavers employee and customer continues to invest a subtantial sum of money into Wine as well, not to mention the many other organizations that contribute money towards Wine, either directly or indirectly.
Can we use *more* money and time? You bet, and that would be great. Further, the money needed to make a substantial dent would be trivial compared to its strategic impact.
Cheers,
Jeremy