We're working very hard on the 2.x revision of the OpenLayers module, and it's becoming more useful by the day. Here's the current backlog for a 2.x release that I'm working on currently:
Behavior upgrade (rewrite)
OpenLayers advanced behaviors, which were formerly in the openlayers_behaviors module, have been generally rewritten for simplicity and compatibility with the 2.x branch.
Geotaxonomy Editing
Along with the rejuvenation of the OpenLayers CCK module, which allows free input of points, lines, and polygons (and multiple per node) with a WKT field type, integration wth Geotaxonomy (2.x) will allow users to input new points and then attach places to them. Along with the OpenLayers geocoder, and CCK modules, there are lots of ways to input data using the OpenLayers module. Once the geolocator module is finished, there will be another awesome way, by using HTML5 to ascertain user position automatically.
Documentation
The OpenLayers module has been thinly documented and difficult to use, and this was worsened by the fact that the 1.x revision was pictured mainly as an API, rather than a full UI. The 2.x branch aims to correct both of these problems, by building out the UI and thoroughly documenting the internals and externals of the module. Adding new layers and styles is now quite a quick process.
Style
With the release of the first OpenLayers theme, an upcoming icon release, and the switching of the preset map from an ugly, bare map to OSM, OpenLayers is no longer an ugly duckling, and can indeed be much prettier and lack to the poweredbygoogle logo that brings anger to some.
Infrastructure
The OpenLayers module has been constantly designed to fit into complex sites by using ctools and Drupal behaviors to manage extensibility, so OpenLayers maps can be exported into code and individual layers moved between sites. We're working on building this out, writing export and import UI functionality and making it more obvious how to add new layers to sites.
So, just a note, and also a request for help & ideas on how to proceed - an OpenLayers 2.x release is upcoming, and will be included with the next release of Managing News.