I still don't see the need for a winecfg cpl applet at this point. You say that the Wine Configuration icon is ok for the time being. Take your time and design it correctly the first time, so you or others don't have to go back and fix it later. Measure twice, cut once, as they say. I want to reiterate that, as far as I remember, this project doesn't have anything to do with redesigning winecfg. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Well, the first part of the project was to get the shell namespace implementation of Control Panel working properly, which is now effectively complete. The second part of the project is to work on some applets for Wine, including improving the standard winecfg applets, unifying all of Wine's configuration tools in the Control Panel. As an example, I'm working on a new Add/Remove Programs applet, to replace the standard Wine uninstaller with one of enhanced functionality, and I am looking into what other applets will be useful within Wine. Splitting up appropriate parts of winecfg into separate control panels is another intention. As this latter goal may take a while to design and implement, I personally believe this control panel applet (which also adds icons for the Registry Editor and Task Manager, two other key utilities, which would be useful to have easy access for) is a useful stepping-stone, as it were.
I do get your point about designing things correctly, of course, but considering the relativey minor functionality of this control panel, it seems to me to be reasonable to include for the time being, so that it can be developed over the next month or so to include all this extra functionality - instead of turning up at the end of July with a large unwieldy patch!
Hope this helps clarify things,