Related to #14, we've written a new library called plaster for abstracting the config format away from Pyramid so that people can write their own custom formats. This can be updated in a bw-compatible way by depending on plaster_pastedeploy. Plaster can also be used for other purposes like sharing a config file with your message queue that is written as a gearbox subcommand or standalone.
http://docs.pylonsproject.org/projects/plaster/en/latest/
Again, I just wanted to bring it to your attention and am interested in your thoughts on using it.