@jasmussen and I have been chatting about turning all of the core widgets into blocks recently. You can check out his first exploration here.

I've also been exploring what that could look like, and have some general questions to pose:

• Several widgets have default titles that show, which can be overridden by adding a title manually. This can be confusing for people who don't know where that title is coming from, or how to get rid of it. (Relevant trac ticket from @karmatosed). We have an opportunity to change this behavior in blocks, either by...
  • Showing the placeholder title, as suggested in the ticket and in Joen's mockups.
  • Or, getting rid of the title entirely, and having people add their own title using a header block if they want one.
• Should we show any interface options within the block itself (like in Joen's mockups), or limit interface options to the toolbar and inspector? So, rather than showing the block name inside the block, and a title field, and then the preview, just displaying the preview like the other "live" blocks. This would keep it more accurately previewing the block, and would remove any interface clutter.
• Can... we deprecate some widgets? :) Specifically thinking the meta widget and the pages widget, which IMO can be replaced by custom menu (which I also plan on redesigning as a block).

I'm sure as we continue to experiment, more questions will arise.