COIN source code has never been modified since it was launched. And hopefully it won't be modified without really good reasons. I don't like coins which are being constantly modified/forked by their developers. You just don't know what to expect from such coins, you don't control things. Developers may once introduce a bug in their implementation which can cost you a lot. Most alt coins developers are not professionals at all. They didn't contribute to Bitcoins source code from its very beginning. So they do not understand the code well. What they do is just a modification of some pre-defined variables in several header files. When they try to dig more deeply into the code trying to implement something new they very often do mistakes and introduce bugs.

I'd really prefer some kind of frozen source code. It'd mean no source code modification at all except for very vey very urgent cases (like the case when Kimoto Gravity Well algorithm was implemented to help some coins to survive after multipuls have drastically increased coins diffs and abandoned mining shortly thereafter).

COIN is going through very interesting times. And this is what makes it even a bit more unique. By now the project is supported more by its community than by its developer. People do not mine COIN for too long - they come and go and this makes its distribution uniquily even. Even low-end graphics cards can be used to solo mine COIN today and it is good for community.