I want to point out something that doesn't seem to be occurring to anyone:

Not all profits are financial in nature. I've done random anonymous things which benefited people and had no expectation of being paid--I've even created a millionaire and live a very humble life. It's why I became a priest. But not all selfless people become priests, and not all priests are selfless people.... the point (before I digress too far) is that we all have our motivations for doing what we do, and starting a currency system which benefits the world is right up the alley of several people I know.

If Satoshi is an individual, I think he/she has earned privacy. Knowing who he/she is will not change Bitcoin, will not alter one bit what has happened so far, and will not create any new and wonderful system.

If Satoshi is a group, I think they are smart to avoid publicity.

In both cases, everyone expects there to be someone with a big ego, a major player, someone who has a lot to gain or lose with the publicity. And in truth, the best cryptographers in the world are people nobody knows the names of. So if this person is simply some highly-talented cryptographer who had never actually put anything together publicly, but in fact had the world's benefit at heart, I wholeheartedly wish him/her the best and reiterate that knowing this person's identity is not likely to be resolved any time soon.

Satoshi very likely crafted the identity to avoid the very kinds of attention that Gaven Andresen is having to deal with, but would have the added pressure of being "the guy who invented it all" and likely would have to take the brunt of a lot of verbal abuse from people who believed him to be the next incarnation of Satan or something. And so out of respect for the obvious talent of this individual to let go of any need to be a central figure, I offer heartfelt thanks for being strong enough to step out of the limelight and just allow Bitcoin to grow "in the wild" as it were, without having to be the one pumping it up into something it's not, or whatever.

Privacy should be observed.

And yes, we're kinda curious, but if we can't handle our curiosity, how can we possibly handle the anxiety of working with a new currency that every financial magazine is cursing out right now? Governments are trying to figure out ways to control it behind the scenes, since they really can't justify regulating something that has no controls on it. And that, perhaps is the biggest favor that Satoshi did to the world: robbing authorities of the ability to place controls, because the originator is simply anonymous in nature.

I believe that this is the very reason that I will never pry into Satoshi's identity. Not that I expect everyone to fall in line behind me, but I do hope that nobody ever finds out the real identity or identities.