Or is there an assumption or recommendation that Bitcoin not be used for transactions that are immediate, such as point-of-sale?
No, this is an
assertion that bitcoins not be used for transactions that are immediate, even if a business is
already capable of handling the levels of fraud the current system would entail.
In fact, out of the roughly half dozen people running services I have either contacted, or who have contacted myself or John Dillon, nobody has actually asked us not to implement replace-by-fee.
Of course not. Until bitcoins become commonplace, the most common user of zero-confirmation transactions - brick and mortar businesses - won't really exist. If this change is inevitable like you guys claim, why not wait for it to happen naturally?