Grishka says "On another thread I just learned that the ABC standard is still somewhat in confusion".

I don't understand why you say that. I have been following the intense discussions on the abcusers discussion list over the last three years or so, even if I have not fully understood some of them. I would characterise the atmosphere there as re-invigorated and somewhat optimistic after a dormancy of nearly a decade where nothing progressed. There has been a new standard agreed, v2.1, the first for over a decade, which deals with some of the unresolved issues from the abandonment of the proposed v2.0 in c2003.
The current discussions for the next version, to deal with new functionality, are ongoing if a little quiet ATM while everybody has a big think, but hopefully shouldn't be too long in coming to fruition.
ABC is in better health than it has been for over a decade.