Re-validating on a regular/annual basis should be for everyone not just coordinators and gateway ops. It keeps contact information current and could also confirm if they wish to keep their netblock allocation.
Think of it as a subtle reminder to maybe get back on board with something they may have put off. :
And allows address space to be returned to the pool, and any associated DNS entries in that address space to be removed as well as any associated gateways.
I think I might have been the first to ask of the portal project was going to be open source. My thoughts at the time was it seemed like a number of regional BGP connected chucks where breaking off and I figured they may also want to implement a user end kind of portal.
If there are some security by obscurity concerns in its design, then we just need a github type of thing hosted on 44net so that non hams are restricted from viewing and submitting to the project.
And even if that doesn't happen for the portal, I think a ham only github type of thing might be a good idea. A number of ham projects get picked up and spun by commercial folks. The earliest example is probably Phil Karn's NOS code. And now a present day example would be about non licensed folks getting access to modified atheros drivers or the CS7000 firmware, etc.