The idea to have several teams that work on ports for different platforms, and all use the same core functionality sounds good. Then realizing every little change on every platform can become a hard and timeconsuming task. If you have different functions for some functionality then functionality can split up on different platforms. In abiword release infos you can always read things like fixed bug x for os y, now compiles on os z, feature a now implemented for platform b. Thats why I have the impression, that people are busy with bugfixing and porting rather than implementing fuctionality.
Functions improve step by step, dialogs too.
What kind of logistic will be necessary to inform the right people of every single improvement and find someone to adapt the dialogs and functions for every platform. Maybe I'm completely wrong. I don't know the source of abiword. Maybe the perfect solutions are already found. I dont know.