[wp-hackers] WP's design philosophy on controlling feeds

[FirstName LastName]

Summary:  

  I am wondering if it is consistent with the philosophy underlying
  the design of WP to allow administrators to control the size and
  frequency of _individual_ feeds directly from within WP?

Elaboration:
  
  Google's feedbuner's method of controlling the size of individual
  feeds, viz, by appending "?max-results=X" is buggy.
  (refer: http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py?answer=79626&topic=13188)
  
  So I would like to control the size and update frequency of feeds
  from within WP itself.  I am aware of the following two:
  
    1) WP Dashboard
    
       Dashboard >> Options >> Reading >> Syndication Feeds,
                        Show the Most Recent X number of posts
  
    2) The file feed-rss2-comments.php has these two lines:
  
       <sy:updatePeriod>
           <?php echo apply_filters('rss_update_period', 'hourly'); ?>
       </sy:updatePeriod>
  
       <sy:updateFrequency>
           <?php echo apply_filters('rss_update_frequency', '10'); ?>
       </sy:updateFrequency>
  
       BUT the above apply to all feeds -- feed for posts, feed
       for all-comments etc. -- and I would like to control the
       size and frequency on a feed-by-feed basis.  

  How can the control of individual feeds from within WP be done
  by any of these approaches:  (a) as ordinary user, (b) as plugin
  developer, (c) as WP internal developer?   
  
  Or is controlling individual feeds from within WP so against the
  philosophy of WP-design that it cannot be done at all?

  Thanks,