A tempest in a tty pot

My vote would be that the original copyright holder of the tty subsystem, if still active if kernel development, should be actioned to do the re-rewrite. Then the best kernel code reviewer (IMO Alan Cox) should be actioned to decide how subtle differences in semantics should be handled. This will only work if the reviewer is given a veto over re-rewriter and the latter has some semblance of humility. ... just day dreaming.