[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 Themes and Apps] nickshertzer:
I think that there may be a way to "inject" the needed changes into CM9 without replacing the entire SystemUI.apk

Check out this thread:

[Framework MOD][Update 2.27.12]All ICS ROMS

Checking updater-script shows all the interesting stuff is happening in "installtheme.sh"

show_progress(0.500000, 0);
ui_print("");
ui_print("True Blue ICS Theme");
ui_print("");
ui_print("Deleting Dalvik and Cache");
mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/platform/s3c-sdhci.0/by-name/userdata", "/data");
delete_recursive("/data/dalvik-cache/");
delete_recursive("/cache/dalvik-cache/");
unmount("/data");
ui_print("");
ui_print("Intalling Theme");
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "mount", "/system");
package_extract_dir("system", "/system");
package_extract_dir("vrtheme", "/sdcard/vrtheme");
set_perm(0, 0, 0755, "/sdcard/vrtheme/installtheme.sh");
set_perm(0, 0, 0755, "/sdcard/vrtheme/zip");
set_perm(0, 0, 0755, "/sdcard/vrtheme/cleanup.sh");
set_perm(0, 0, 0755, "/sdcard/vrtheme/zipalign");
run_program("/sdcard/vrtheme/installtheme.sh");
run_program("/sdcard/vrtheme/cleanup.sh");
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "umount", "/system");
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "umount", "/sdcard");
ui_print("");
ui_print("Done! Reboot");

Here is the installtheme.sh

#!/sbin/sh
# Copyright VillainROM 2011. All Rights Reserved
# cleanup from last time
[ -d /sdcard/vrtheme-backup ] && rm -r /sdcard/vrtheme-backup

# we need to first go through each file in the "app" folder, and for each one present, apply the modified theme to the APK
# let us copy each original APK here first.
echo "Processing /system/app/"
busybox mkdir -p /sdcard/vrtheme-backup/system/app
busybox mkdir -p /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/app
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/system/app/
for f in $(ls)
do
echo "Processing $f"
cp /system/app/$f /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/app/
cp /system/app/$f /sdcard/vrtheme-backup/system/app/
done
echo "Backups done for system apps"

# repeat for /system/framework now

[ -d /sdcard/vrtheme/system/framework ] && framework=1 || framework=0

if [ "$framework" -eq "1" ]; then
echo "Processing /system/framework"
busybox mkdir -p /sdcard/vrtheme-backup/system/framework
busybox mkdir -p /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/framework
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/system/framework
for f in $(ls)
do
echo "Processing $f"
cp /system/framework/$f /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/framework/
cp /system/framework/$f /sdcard/vrtheme-backup/system/framework/
done
echo "Backups done for frameworks"
fi

# repeat for /data/app now

[ -d /sdcard/vrtheme/data ] && dataapps=1 || dataapps=0

if [ "$dataapps" -eq "1" ]; then
echo "Processing /data/app/"
busybox mkdir -p /sdcard/vrtheme-backup/data/app
busybox mkdir -p /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/data/app
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/data/app/
for f in $(ls)
do
echo "Processing $f"
cp /data/app/$f /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/data/app/
cp /data/app/$f /sdcard/vrtheme-backup/data/app/
done
echo "Backups done for data apps"
fi

# for each of the system apps needing processed
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/app/
for f in $(ls)
do
echo "Working on $f"
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/system/app/$f/
/sdcard/vrtheme/zip -r /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/app/$f *
done
echo "Patched system files"

if [ "$dataapps" -eq "1" ]; then
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/data/app/
for f in $(ls)
do
echo "Working on $f"
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/data/app/$f/
/sdcard/vrtheme/zip -r /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/data/app/$f *

done
echo "Patched data files"
fi

if [ "$framework" -eq "1" ]; then
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/framework
for f in $(ls)
do
echo "Working on $f"
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/system/framework/$f/
/sdcard/vrtheme/zip -r /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/framework/$f *
done
echo "Patched framework files"
fi

# and now time to zipalign
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/app/
busybox mkdir aligned
for f in $(ls)
do
echo "Zipaligning $f"
/sdcard/vrtheme/zipalign -f 4 $f ./aligned/$f
done

if [ "$dataapps" -eq "1" ]; then
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/data/app/
busybox mkdir aligned
for f in $(ls)
do
echo "Zipaligning $f"
/sdcard/vrtheme/zipalign -f 4 $f ./aligned/$f
done
fi

if [ "$framework" -eq "1" ]; then
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/framework/
busybox mkdir aligned
for f in $(ls)
do
echo "Zipaligning $f"
/sdcard/vrtheme/zipalign -f 4 $f ./aligned/$f
done
fi

# time to now move each new app back to its original location
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/app/aligned/
cp * /system/app/
chmod 644 /system/app/*
if [ "$dataapps" -eq "1" ]; then
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/data/app/aligned/
cp * /data/app/
chmod 644 /data/app/*
fi
if [ "$framework" -eq "1" ]; then
cd /sdcard/vrtheme/apply/system/framework/aligned/
cp * /system/framework/
chmod 644 /system/framework/*
fi

# Do not remove the credits from this, it's called being a douche
echo "VillainTheme is done"
# we are all done now

Maybe someone needs to contact VillainTheme/Brainmaster or demo23019 and figure out how we can leverage this awesome power. demo23019 uses it to change out 115 PNGs from the framework-res.apk on the fly, but from the looks of the script, it should be able to do a lot more...