Interesting idea.
I do want to improve the experience of "machine setup" - it should be as easy to set up a hard drive for MAME as it is for say, VirtualBox. To me, part of the challenge would be maintenance of the profiles themselves. For instance, it makes sense to prompt people to create a hard drive for the PC driver, but that probably should not be the default for systems like the Apple II, where hard drives were an esoteric luxury.
I will say that I will happily adjust my immediate term development plans given the possibility of engaged help in the process :-)
