Yes.. it did all those things.. It didn't really specialise in those things.
Its like saying Tenebrix was before Litecoin...
Specialize in implementing scrypt-N and SHA-3? I'm not sure I understand the point you're attempting to make.
Check our commit history on github over the past 6 months alone if you don't think we're actively progressing.
What I mean is that sure it had them in, of sorts (though the n-factor scheduling for yacoin makes it pretty hard to mine with GPUs) - and its more of an scrypt-jane style coin. But ultimately, Yacoin hasn't really taken off anywhere that I know of.
The purpose of the N-Factor schedule was INTENDED to make it hard to GPU mine. GPU mining Yacoin is an art. YAC is ultimately a CPU coin though.
Scrypt-jane, Scrypt-N and adaptive scrypt are the same thing!
Yacoin certainly hasn't yet taken off though for sure.