You were the one to bring up Duplex, in the context of turning lights on and off. You practically forced me to tell something about the framework 
This is where I usually refer to the “Duplex experience levels”:
- User * you plug in your hardware and run the tool. Alternatively, you don’t have any hardware but is fine with using the virtual control surface
- Expert * your hardware is not supported, but you’re able to write control-maps and configurations for it (this is how new hardware becomes supported, device configurations are peer reviewed)
- Hacker * the ability to put together one’s own applications using the Duplex API, or changing features in the API itself.
Good point about developers approaching the framework, and not the other way around. So far, contributions have been plenty and useful, so I’d say the model is working.
Also, those imaginary “core developers” would be focused on the core API? Well, there really isn’t that much work left.
The fun part is making an application, and I’ve already posted a small guide on how to write such a thing.