These might be esoteric requests but: I think there’s a lot of hacking that could be unleashed on the “bottom half” of the Framework 16 if there was a low-ish cost blank for the touchpad module available. Since that would be a specialty part with attendant high costs, the next best thing would be a stripped down version of the $49 touchpad module, without the actual touchpad module or other electronics, just the mechanical frame parts. That would leave a touchpad-sized hole, but that would be easy/easier to fill with a 3d printed plug. The size and thinness of the touchpad module makes a full 3d printed replacement for the whole module complicated, but a plug would be much more attainable. Also – some folks may have in mind adding a keyboard or wider touchpad or something like that anyway, so in that case they are going to be making bigger holes anyway.
Similarly – and this is really esoteric, I know – the midplate module is pretty pricey, at $99. If it were possible to drive down that cost a bit by unbundling the kit and selling the midplate and “input module connector board” separately, I bet that would also unleash some new ideas, whether that’s poking a few non-standard holes in the midplate to allow /just a bit/ of extra vertical space (and reusing an existing input module connector board), or by re-using the “input module connector board” in a new project to allow reuse of Framework input modules elsewhere. Imagine an external USB keyboard that accepted framework input modules, for example.
Anyway, those are just my two marketplace requests to help jump start community projects.