The Contract With America was clear, concise and actionable. Anything short of that is just academic fluff, of no more value than the arguments of two 12 year olds about whether Spiderman could be beat up Superman.
It wouldn’t be directly usable to change policy and fundamentally reform government, no, but so many “conservatives” are confused about the fundamentals that I think that a “recurrence to fundamental principles” could do some good. I would not call myself a proponent of the Mount Vernon Statement, even though I am more or less for it. Instead, I like the Twelve Points, which are more detailed but still a statement of principle, not a collection of specific action items. Either the Twelve Points or the Mount Vernon Statement would just be academic, as you said, unless they eventually cause specific action items to be created and enacted, but before that happens, at what point should we discuss principles themselves (or should we)?