As I can see it, the only "effort" missing is the GNU project declaring that this is the official GNU system.
Exactly, and that isn't a high priority (for the project as a whole -- we all have our own priorities) -- making one more non-free program is. Personally, I would be very sad to see a release of the GNU system that does not allow a user the same technical freedoms as the Hurd provides. But that is another topic, biased by history.
