2009/2/17 Carcharoth carcharothwp@googlemail.com:
If these all count as low-hanging fruit, they may have been picked, but they haven't really ripened yet. Part of the trouble is that truly general, overview articles are: (a) difficult to write well; and (b) experts tend to prefer to write more limited, specialised articles. Sometimes the subsidiary articles need to be written to a good level before the general article can be tackled. Sometimes it is the other way round.
I love a good metaphor! You're absolutely right, writing articles about very general topics is very difficult. I think the problem comes in trying to balance breadth, depth and conciseness. There isn't an obvious solution - it just needs someone with the right talents to devote a significant amount of time and effort to it.