I think many people will be happy with a(n easily customiseable/extendable) tag editor in core - even those who want a full fledged wysiwyg, if their only other option is no editor in core at all.
I myself prefer a simple tag editor too - it also has this "ability" to strip out all the extra markup when copying and pasting from word... Ofcourse most developers, if asked for an opinion will choose the editor they like and personally prefer to be the one that is included in core, but that cannot happen, so what is probably needed is someone to lead the effort. Someone who has buy in with the developers to decide "This is the editor that we want in. Either it gets in or nothing" and after that point, I suspect most of the bike shedding will be less common and people may try to work on the actual issues to get that to happen.
