I am very skeptical about Ripple, the difference is that the company OpenCoin owns the supply of it. They are giving them away on this forum to try to enter the market that has been created by Bitcoin. You need to be able to trust OpenCoin if you are going to store your wealth in Ripples. How does one trust an corporation that is designed to make it's investor's wealthy?
Don't store your wealth in Ripples then. Use Ripple as a payment network and currency exchange and store your wealth in whatever currency has the properties you like. I completely agree that there's huge risk associated with using XRP as a currency now. (There's huge risk with Bitcoin too, but that's another story.)
1) I won't use Ripples because I don't want to undermine BTC. Decentralized currencies now have a fleeting shot at "making it" and I want to maximize that by supporting the top currency. I am going with the market leader just like I use Facebook and not Google+.
2) I can convert BTC to USD without going through an intermediary currency that aims to compete with BTC.
3) Once Paypal adopts BTC, it's over for the Ripple payment system.
If I could offer your company some feedback, please help BTC instead of trying to undermine it. One place you can help is by going through the paperwork to become a lending facility for BTC. Become a BTC bank and help deal with the deflationary spiral issue in 2140.