Robert,
No doubt it's risky to implement things that there is no consensus on. But the device I'm writing this on was invented by *not a consensus*, and a consensus to design it would not have emerged on this list nor elsewhere.
The risk may be lowered:
1) on behalf of our company I'm excited to run whatever not-sks testnode you prototype
2) fwiw there's Hockeypuck written in a popular language and popular db. The sks recon is separated into a module, and could be swapped out. All the other bells and whistles of a ks are there.
3) find one more person and we can call it a test network
As an alternative to Hockeypuck, we also use a keyserver on the backend written in Node/TypeScript and postgres that I'd be happy to strip/clean up and contribute. It has no sync nor consensus built in. Based on OpenPGP.js. I wrote it purely out of my frustration with sks.
I think this list needs resolute action, not consensus. Resolute action is risky, sure.
My company will issue a modest grant to get a ball rolling on whatever is not-sks, implemented by a person with a brain (you're overqualified!).
Cheers,
Tom