[chiefalchemist]

Those don't belong in core either. Core should focus strictly on the being a rock solid foundation. Plugins are there to supplement that. That's the beauty of the architecture. Or at least, is supposed to be.

WordPress should not have the same mindset as Jetpack. Oops? Did I just say that?? ;)

[rado]

WP is useless without CDN and caching.

[chiefalchemist]

It depends on how you're using it. It depends on the resources you have for such things. WP can and will work without them.