There is of course wide spectrum between "I can download the entire chain on my phone" and "Only 5 bank companies in the world can run a fully verifying node", but I think it's important that we choose what point in between there is acceptable.
+1
and btw, i dont think mike hearns "yay, lets all have glass fibre by next year!" is that acceptable middle ground.
My suggestion would be a one-time increase to perhaps 10 MiB or 100 MiB blocks (to be debated), and after that an at-most slow exponential further growth.
i totally agree with this. let the networt run for a little more, make a conservative one-time increase in block size, then use the time to analyse the final phase of the 1mb limit and the effect of the increased limit and plan another hard fork, possibly with an - again conservatively - adjusting limit.
i am all for radical action if its necessary. but right now transaction fees are still very low and there is really no need to be radical. its just an unnecessary risk.