with all other issues of Ripple aside. why are they holding 20% of all the XRP? that alone makes me weary of using them
To make money obviously. If you think holding XRP yourself won't be profitable, then don't do it. You only need tiny amounts of it if all you want to do is to use Ripple as a far superior, distributed alternative to Mt Gox.
surely you must see that by them wanting to make money and being a centralized point of control and distribution/issuance of XRP, and currently a closed source of code, that there may end up being a conflict of interest?