It's bad because it's centralization. It's bad because, as I said above, keeping the client closed source at this point is bad for EVERYONE except the founders.
At this point everyone agrees that OpenCoin needs to eventually make the server open source. Word on the street is that will be happening within a few months, this year for sure. If Ripple does not become open source, no one would trust it (including myself). I can't see how OpenCoin would hope that XRP will be taken seriously as a currency if they do not release the source code.
Let me ask you: Does Ripple have any hopes of gaining adoption if they don't release the source code?
We could be working on making Ripple better and more robust, but instead they keep it closed because they want to get rich quickly. By doing this, they're actively HURTING the idea of Ripple.
It's been said over and over again that Ripple needs to remain closed source until the necessary feature set has been fully implemented. Contracts aren't done yet (
https://ripple.com/wiki/Contracts). There are many bugs and other things that need fixing. Once the server has been released to the wild, it becomes very difficult to make changes.
It is perfectly rational to expect that OpenCoin is hesitant to release unfinished software which is still in beta, if doing so would make it difficult to provide patches and updates.
Which part of this doesn't make sense to you?
It's clear from your post history that you have a dog in this fight, misterbigg. So may I ask what exactly is your association with OpenCoin, Inc. and Ripple?
I've answered this a few times already. I have no official association with OpenCoin. I am a holder of XRPs (and Bitcoins). That's it! How many times does this need to come up?
I don't think they will skyrocket in value, but as I said above, even if they're worth a single penny each, the founders get 200 million dollars. WTF?
I much rather OpenCoin generate $200m in revenue, some of which will go to paying 20+ developers, equipment costs, CEO, marketing, etc... instead of the Bitcoin development model where programmers have to panhandle for donations.
Again, I get that there is a bad taste coming from the XRP pre-mine but it seems that folks are ignoring the facts.