ok - starting to reply to myself: just found out about Data Packages Views, which seems to be quite related to my ‘intents’ idea above, perhaps with a different initial focus.
if i understand correctly, the initial work on DPV is focused on defining possible views from the data package’s side, whereas ‘intents’ would work by matching data requirements ‘advertised’ by visualization apps with metadata exposed by data packages. maybe worth experimenting with both approaches in parallel if there is interest.