Ripple, while emulating much of bitcoin's feel, is missing the one factor that made bitcoin amazing: a democratic, self regulating, profit normalizing, distribution mechanism. Without it all you are is the next centrally managed fiat currency "federal reserve".
Maybe my perceptions are different, but XRPs won't ever be worth all that much compared to Bitcoins. I see XRPs as the tickets one needs to trade bitcoins and other currencies on Ripple. The show is worth more than the tickets. Rather than see XRPs as money, I see them as tokens or stamps. Ripple is a post office, Bitcoin is the letter.
If Jed, Joel and Open Coin have put all the effort into building a post office, I have no issue with how the postmasters distribute the stamps. The early builders of Bitcoin have a bunch of coins too, but the only people I hear complain about it are the envious.
Someone please correct me if I'm misperceiving this.