[andybak]

Yep. There's definitely some architectural changes to the admin that would aid in re-theming.

More functionality encapsulated in template tags or the use of class-based views to facilitate reuse. Or even split the Admin into an API and an replaceable front-end. (a front-end to the back-end if you get my drift).

Lots of the admin would be nice to reuse for non-admin CRUD apps. Actions, list-filters, changelist, hierarchical date stuff, inlines...

In many ways the admin code is amazingly malleable and open to reuse in many areas. It's just that it's rather inconsistent and some other areas are extremely hard to reuse. Woe betide you if the thing you want to customize is in the latter category.