All of you have a very strong Unix oriented view of OS (that is normal for Hurd devel) but I really have the impression that you dont really want to change things. Whatever you think about the Unix floder organisation (even if logical) is a fucking mess. (too much things are cross-linked or split between : /sbin, /bin, /usr/bin/, /usr/sbin, /usr/local/bin, ...) And the reason is that there are too many application to fit properly in one place.
On anothre side, I perfectly understood that to create hurd you have to work under Linux but your discution about /usr reminds me somehing I saw in inferno OS (a long time ago) it was possible to lauch application like this > editor/vi > wm/start I mean extending the PATH already set. I had found that a wonderful idea. I know it it is utopia. But I hope to be explained why my point of view must be eradicated forever cleary.

