The contributions have been from many and I think it goes to show how substantial the developer base is for PHP. I am really not convinced it's a good idea and I wholly object to even considering a move to another language. Statistically speaking PHP is the go to language, just take a look at W3 Techs:
https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php/all/all &
https://w3techs.com/technologies/ove...g_language/all
For the reasons you're highlighting also, with regards to host restrictions, it just further reinforces that this is the wrong thing to do.
The core features I think have become far too stretched, the only 2 important things to me about SB++ is:
- Synchronising Bans
- Managing Admin Access
At a push I'd say it's also important to:
- Report Users
- Appeal Bans
I don't really think SB++ best serves as a public-facing panel (with regards to like server stats or public banlists) and this could easily be re-implemented as plugin/extension functionality, with this being said however, are you now possibly considering taking away what has become core to the project, for a long time by a lot of users?
Translation and Templating I don't really have any comments, but either way anything to make it easier to do either of the above activities is surely a good thing... what I'd say would be nice is some sort of embeddable functionality, so you can implement it into existing templates or webpages.
Plugins, I've covered that above already in some respects, otherwise the ability to build on SB++ is surely also a good thing.