Just a quick point from me:

For me, one of the big issues with the current setup is the lack of central templates / static resources. There are many instances where items are duplicated for each site. Take for example the footer. If we want to change a link in the standard footer, this requires changing it in all the sites, and (assumtion: translating it for each site). If this was a central footer, shared across all the sites, maintenance would be much easier. There are also many more examples of where a common theme could be used for elements across multiple sites as well.

cheers,

ryanlerch