it would not make sense to use the worst possible examples as our baseline.
That baseline doesn't make sense
if your goal is to optimize tx per second. But why bother, when Visa/Paypal/Square can do that already very well.
OTOH, if you GAF about survivability of the diverse/diffuse/defensible/resilient network, you plan for the worst (and hope for the best).
Gavin wants to plan according to some rosy vision of the future, where the economy is all fine and dandy thanks to Helicopter Ben printing endless FunBux.
I want Bitcoin to survive World War Three (working subtitle 'Requiem for the Petrodollar').
That's not going to happen if Bitcoin lives in first strike targets like Google.mil datacenters.
World War Three? Are you dreaming? Einstein knew a long time ago that a World War Three would be the last one.