Canonical Plugins

A difficult thing about WordPress is it’s hard to rely on plugins.
Most are free, and there is no guarantee that the plugin that is giving you the functionality you need will still be around a year from now.

Around 2009 Automattic floated the idea of moving the better plugins into a core-like space, where there was an implied guarantee that the plugin would be actively developed.

Anyone have any idea if the concept’s been abandoned?