Right now I use the star system to automate what photos get posted to Flickr, etc. (anything >3 stars).

Obviously this means keyframes would be put on the list of photos to publish

I'd like to see an option for using keywords or color instead of stars

Sorry, but that's not possible, because only the stars are stored into xmp files, none of the other taxonomy.
I'd suggest you keep your timelapse folders separated from the normal photos, and let your automation script run only on the photos folder.

I just checked. The keywords are stored in the xmp file. Example :

<lr:hierarchicalSubject>
<rdf:Bag>
<rdf:li>ApMadoc</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>Clouds</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>Landscape</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>Michigan</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>Sky</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>Snow</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>Tudor ApMadoc</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>USA</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>United States</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>Upper Peninsula</rdf:li>
</rdf:Bag>
</lr:hierarchicalSubject>

Those show up as keywords under lightroom.

So, my thought is to put LRT_KeyFrame as a keyword....

Thoughts?

It would make everything much more complicated and intransparent for the user. Currently I don't see this being a good idea, sorry.

There are a lot of users who use the star system to designate their better photos to automatically post to flickr, smugmug, etc. This gets in the way of that.

A simple configuration option to allow the user to choose between a 4 star, and a keyword, defaulting to the star. This would accommodate either path.