Makes sense. And, honestly, I should know better. I just have gotten kind of annoyed with the graphical obsession that most sites have taken to getting this sort of stuff running.
The single most annoying part of switching solutions has always been modifications to my interactions, more so than any glitz. I think my defence against worrying about what different icons did/meant was just learning how to type what I wanted. Sorta sad it took me as long as it did to get to that level of using the computer. (I initially rejected vim/emacs because of how difficult they felt...)
Reader and gmail had hit a sweet spot of playing off my muscle memory rather well. To the point that I honestly forget about all of the extra graphical stuff they add around what I'm focusing on.
Anyway... feels like I should give this area a run. I think I agree with you regarding the backend stuff. I would probably just sit on top of gwene.org. But regardless of the source, making your own backend seems... unnecessary.
