org-ref relies very heavily on the link functionality to provide actions on a cite, e.g. to open the pdf, or url, allow sorting, to change the cite color when it is a bad key, etc If the new syntax also has that capability, e.g. through font-lock, then I would consider integrating it into org-ref, but if not I think it would be a big regression in org-ref functionality.

If I were to dream, each cite would have text-properties that include the key (so it is easy to get the key at point and do something with info in the corresponding database), and a help-echo function that could be user-defined, a face function that could be user-defined, a user-defined keymap, and some properties that define the bounds of the cite. While at it, maybe it is a good idea to allow a custom display, so one could toggle between a short cite (e.g. number or author year) and the full cites. These do not need to be part of the implementation, but if they were possible from the implementation it would be a lot more useful for something like org-ref.

It would be a gain in quality of export, especially for non-LaTeX documents though, if there was an integrated citeproc.

For the bibliography you need to support a few variants, IMO. One is bibtex-like, where you specify the source of the bibliography(ies) in the place where you want it to appear. The other is biblatex like, where the bibliography(ies) can be specified in a header or as properties, and you have another way to specify where in the document you want the bibliography to be.

It should also be possible to have no bibliography, but the correct citations. And it should be possible to have the bibliography go to another file.

Finally, the most common thing I do is use a default bibliography that is defined in a variable in my init file. This lets me put citations in org-files conveniently, but I almost never export these as they are usually just notes.

If that all seemed possible, most likely it would make sense to start a new generation of org-ref that largely eliminated the links. I would probably still have to keep label and the ref links. There is not currently a way to reference equations otherwise. Tables and Figures seem ok with native org links.

A new org-ref wouldn't happen fast, I guess it would be a year long project. But a clean slate would have some advantages to clean up and consolidate some things.