It has taken us four years to start bumping into the soft limit, we're not really at risk of hitting the hard limit any time soon.
Are you sure about that?
http://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-usersGiven the pace of news stories regarding more businesses accepting bitcoin payments, and new exchanges and payment processors popping up around the world I'd be very surprised if we don't hit the hard limit before the end of the year.
Looking at how long it took to go from 0.7 to 0.8 there really isn't a lot of time to waste.
Once again, we're all really just guessing. I suppose time will tell which one of us was the luckiest guesser.