Yes, thats exactly the kind of thing I am talking about, and I welcome your initiative, and I think its good its exposed here so routing-wg people can reflect on it. Clearly, its not only a DB-WG question!
The other part of the story is a concern I have heard stated in DB-WG that 'referential integrity' is very hard to maintain in a database when it refers to external objects, which may cease to exist asynchronously because the constraint cannot be maintained between disparate independent sources.
I think that problem is a general problem, and cannot be fixed. I worry, that this may be a 'blocker' for some people.
But, I think the "win" in permitting APNIC::named-object references inside RIPE and vice-versa is very big.
-G