Smiteworks did not develop the ruleset for C&C. That was built by a community developer. I'm pretty sure that was and is Dr. Venture's labor of love.
Nor did they develop any ruleset prior to 3rd edition.
Smiteworks only created 3.5, Pathfinder, 4e, 5e and CoreRPG. None of the other official or unofficial rulesets were built by them. They were built by community developers.
My presumption of knowledge level of the older games is based on my direct discussions with them and the responses that I got. You can tell when someone doesn't really understand a topic based on how they answer your questions. Yes, they know something of D&D/AD&D. But, they don't know anything about any of the OSR games based upon them or the differences between them.
I get that you want your opinion about an official classic ruleset to be heard, Knucklehead. The thing is though. It isn't going to matter. Who is going to build it? Not Smiteworks.
I have already stated that I don't plan to make mine official. It was not my idea. Smiteworks thinks that is what I wanted, but it really wasn't. If you have arguments for why I should reconsider that, then you are welcome to explain.
At any rate, I had intended to just leave stand what I had said already and not further comment, unless anyone had questions directly about it.
One thing though. I really don't understand what you mean by "a limited set of kinda awful choices".
I simply want to publish my modules. Either they will publish them here or I will find another outlet for them. What is the awful choice?