The real question is who will be the first NEM merchant?

Well said. Profiteers/dumpers wanting price to shoot up are whinging about exchanges. real Nemsters want to use it.
You want different places to ensure nems value first.
From first hand experience with node, exchange listing should be priority ATM.
I disagree.
IMHO NODE has other problems and that's why it's value went to shiz. I mean why was such a big chunk of NODE on Bter when it got hacked ? Because everyone wanted to be ready do dump - at least that's my theory.
Wrong, nobody else wanted to list node. The Dev kept blaming us but a lot of us tried for months.
We were ready to see node grow, unfortunately bter bull*** affected us by not having other exchanges listing node.
A monopoly is not good for decentralized currencies, just look at how central banks can manipulate fiat easily.
I'm not saying we NEM should try to get listed on other exchanges. I'm saying it's not as important as some people make it out to be at least not imho.
Also we are 2 days past launch and have Poloniex and Coingateway (which means you can pay with XEM wherever you can pay with BTC). That's not bad imho. Give it time people.