What kind of site do we ultimately want to have?

There have been a lot of discussions on meta about different aspects of site direction, 
but none directly focused on the fundamental question: "What kind of site do we 
want to have?"

This question is fundamentally about ***where do we want to be in the end***, and not about 
*how we get there*.

***We all agree that contributions must 'show their work'. Exactly where and how we draw 
the line is an implementation detail and outside the scope of this question.***

We've provided answers that capture the main positions we know about. Please feel free 
to add your own if you have another outcome in mind.

["Please feel free to vote an answer *down* if you don't want that outcome."|"Please vote 
answers *up* if you want that outcome, *down* if you don't, and neither if you can live 
with it but it's not your favorite."]