It seems like all the cutting edge ROMs are always for the flagship devices. I would think that it would be a greater challenge to push a $100 phone to the limits instead of joining the crowded field on the Nexus 6's, etc. I would like to see a AOSP based build myself if anyone is interested. But, this CM12 build is so much smoother than stock that I'm dealing with its issues right now. I'm sure some fixes are on the way once the bugs are sorted out.
We don't necessarily need so much as a whole new ROM as we do new kernels. Quite frankly I don't see what all the hub-bub is about all the "special features" of (insert ROM here) are. AOSP and CM are my go-tos because they are as barebones as anyone could possibly need. Is PIE really all that great? Do you super want a dark mode? Is MIUI really that impressive? Hide your navbar and fullscreen mode? There's an app for that. Plus most ROMs are built from CM or AOSP base anyway. There all the same in my opinion.
Kernels are where the magic happens. Swipe2wake, doubletap, hover control, overclock, Linaro optimization, sound mods, screen control, i/o schedulers, cpu governors, stability...the possibilities are endless. My hope is that
@pattyboi or someone is working on a new kernel for either stock or CM. Most issues and features that are worth working into a ROM are kernel based.
As for pushing a $100 device over the edge...my dual core ZTE Awe smoked most quad core stock devices in terms of benchmarks and overall performance with its overclocked kernel. It was such a weak device before it was opened up. At 1.9ghz from its stock 1.2GHz that beast did amazing things.
It can be done and I hope for sure it does. I've still got my unlocked bootloader as I never upgraded stock so I'm hoping any bootloader related issues will be null for me and those who followed suit. I immediately installed CM as soon as it was available and I plan to stick with it til the end. If I new anything about kernel development (or if I even had a computer) I'd be on it in a heartbeat. Someone will turn up with the features I mentioned, I just know it. There's a lot of untapped potential in the Leon. We just need someone to dig into it