Right, but relying on some solution to automatically "guess" the repository based on DNS seems like too much magic. This is what I want:
1. Unpack Maven
2. export M2_HOME=/usr/local/maven
3. export M2_REPO="http://repository.example.com:8081"
At this point, Nexus should take care of the rest. Even as far as just understanding that I want to reference the public group as my global mirror. A reliance on a DNS entry makes an assumption that people care enough to configure DNS just to be able to use Maven.
Through the years I've learned that people don't care about Maven. Maven needs to get out of the way.