Its not about splitting Blender. Just providing a companion program which would allow non-3D users to have access to 3d models and provide a customizable rendering output.
The closest thing I could think of is Kerkythea. You can load models into it, tweak the size, position and rotation of each, adjust lighting and materials, etc, then render. Something like this, and perhaps even more simplified, but with blender running inside and using blender’s internal renderer.
I suppose one could put oneself on a pedestal for being able to do 3d and being a more “advanced” graphics manipulator, using nothing but “professional” tools. But having your work more accessible to the general public opens more possibilities…
Some other things I could think of where it could be useful is for providing a viewer for educational purposes. Think of models of machines, cells, dinosaurs, people, etc. You could open the viewer, find an angle you like, then print the pic. You could probably start a business providing the 3d contents. Something to think about. 
Having a convenient viewer is not stupid.
Instead of dumbing down blender and hiding advanced features for beginners i would suggest a “help” mode that explains in detail, what all the features do and how to use them when the mouse hovers over a particular button or menu item.
This way, you are able to help out the beginners without changing the interface and wasting the developers time with that stuff. Besides, there’s already a model repository, i dont see the need for another. “The average joe” working on a powerpoint presentation would have little use of this because there will never be a vast amount of models packaged with blender, there are too many disadvantages. I say, if mr. joe needs clip art then he should use clip art, not a 3D modelling/animation/rendering program with a game engine.
It is NOT about learning 3d. And it’s also not about hiding features.
Right, it is about Blender being an overkill for the average Joe. So why not something lighter?
It is about a viewer type program for viewing and rendering pics from 3d models. Much like some java programs currently available (i.e., Javaview), but with a much better output since it uses blender’s internal renderer.
Take the blender model repository, for example. If there is a convenient viewer for that, then perhaps people who don’t know 3d can access them and make good use of the resources available.
Putting all your eggs in one basket has never been a very good policy. The blender model repository is a good idea, but what if it disappeared one day? And also, there are other more specialized niche that could be developed. Mech fanatics, car fans, manga and cg groupies, etc. Being able to provide 3d models and a convenient viewer/renderer could be useful…
The average Joe offers a lot of possibilities for 3d, actually…
OK, I just did a quick Google search for “3d viewer”. Seems like there are already products like these.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=3d+viewer
The vrml viewers don’t have the quality the Blender internal renderer can offer, or open .blend files directly… There are commercial ones, too. And yes, even for CAD files:
http://www.righthemisphere.com/products/dexp/de_cad.html
So I guess it would not be a pioneering effort after all. But it does justify the need for a decent viewer. Perhaps not as high end as Deep Exploration, but something as simple as a media player…
it’s already there so i wonder why someone would need a blender rewrite for this kind of application…
remember that average joe doesn’t care so much about blender as most of us do, maybe he just wants to get the job done with whatever damn app…
several companies with a business model based on selling pre-made 3d content to the masses do provide free simple solutions to view and render their models… (ex. daz|studio uses 3delight which is a good renderman engine) you can even import dxf, obj, etc…
even adobe acrobat allows to embed interactive 3d models into pdf files recently… so average joe can rotate, zoom and print it like he wants with the safety of an ‘industry standard’…
the real pioneering idea would be doing this open source and giving it for free…
Well, then who is going to code, develop and support this “companion” program?
And if you mean Ton and the other devs, how can you not think that’ll take away their focus from the main program?
Incorporating that dumbed down crap would make the codebase more crufty and likely harder to maintain and splitting it off would likely cause a real loss of focus to support two programs, a real and a “lite” version for those who can’t be bothered to actually learn the real program.
Of course, it’s open source, so you’re likely welcome to get a team together and program a “dummies version” yourself I suppose.
Have you thought that blenders devs have purposely not aimed their program at the “Average Joe” demographic?
Why must all programs be all things to all people? It makes no sense. Those “average Joes” can use Daz or sketchup or whatever “3D for Dummies” they can find if they don’t need/can’t be bothered to learn a fully loaded application.
I get the idea that just because Blender is free/open source that it should somehow cater to the lowest common denominator of computer user.
And if it does do that to the detriment of being a more professional tool, that would be a damn shame.
he he spyres, that’s pretty harsh of a down to earth reality !
but so true, i’d rather have gi, sss, true displacement et al in the next releases than a stripped down point & click redundant subset of features…
let’s ask Suzanne if she needs a bit of company … maybe some assistants like the good old yellow doggy that helps to find lost files in windows or the mighty wizard in ms word …
OH FREAKIN NO!
I hate these annoying bastards!