Blender 2D and other modes.

My ideas about the templates.

There should be options for 2D without animation, 2D with animation, 3D without animation and 3D with animation.

The 3D mode without animation will really strip down the interface. The dope sheet, the graph editor, physics and many other menus can be removed. Animation is not needed for most tasks in Blender so in most cases so stripping away the unnecessary stuff makes a lot of sense.

The 2D mode would be a great step for blender. Blender is not really just for 3D art, however, 3D dominates the way blender is designed. A 2D mode would give blender true creative freedom. The 2D mode could be used for storyboarding in grease pencil, floor planning, 2D animated subtitles and much more. Little work would be need other than the removal of features in this mode. Other features like modifiers, physics and 2D meta Balls can be ported over time after 2.8. Blender 2D should only support Eevee (not cycles) and have a 2D camera and no lights. This gives blender 2D an infinite canvas which is not seen in any 2D software I know of.

Over in the scene tab in the properties editor, there should be an option the add Dimensions so you can add animation tools or 3D if you need to use them.