Hi,
The desire to keep the number of profiles low has plagued Java EE at least since EE 6. And having been the only Individual (except Antonio I believe) in the EE Umbrella EG from 6 to 8 I know most of that history. I was beside a few others (like Antonio or David) vocal about adding a few more profiles, which was not heard by vendors till some of them came up with the MicroProfile idea.
Having a "free profile" which is pretty much like Spring is not a bad thing, but I guess at least 2 or 3 others can't hurt. Large enterprises unlike some "hippy startups" or cool social media players depend on compatibility. And MicroProfile is the best or rather worst example how compatibility is almost impossible to guarantee. And most implementations won't even work in the "Full Profile" containers by the same vendors.
That BOM also never existed for MicroProfile. It so far merely is a Parent POM to help new MP features use the minimal necessary standards but it does not work on the outside for developers trying to consume and use MicroProfile. Such a BOM still does not exist, you can see what's been discussed over the past 2 quarters in this thread:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/microprofile/DAemBIWP9mI Following others on the same subject pretty much since a year earlier when Eclipse had accepted it.
Werner