Isn't this sort of like turning an entire rack into just a big blade server enclosure?
Instead of a dumb rack -- four posts and screw holes in the right places -- you get a blade chassis 72U high. Centralized but redundant power supplies with integrated monitoring and per-feed software control. A built-in KVM. Large slow(er) fans that push more air more efficiently and more quietly, or perhaps a liquid cooling system that provides a clean, standardized disconnect for each component. Assignable resources -- instead of running virtual machines, you run re-configurable real machines, where you start by selecting a number of processors with associated RAM and add in storage.
On the one hand, this will have less in common with consumer hardware, so economies of scale will not be shared. On the other hand, server hardware is already substantially different from high-end consumer hardware, so it's probably not that big a deal.
We discussed the challenges of various signaling that would prevent companies from being willing to participate. But this idea is really old.