But your treating it as a currency, which is not what it aims to be. So I don't see how being backed by a "REAL company" as you put it could be a bad thing? Bitpay isn't open sourced and has funding from "REAL companies" should we all think they aren't doing a good thing? I think bitpay is one of the companies that help bitcoin be what it is today.
Actually, I am NOT treating it as a currency because I see no value in XRP's. How can you say that Ripple doesn't aim to be a currency when they offer currency trading for BTC and other crypto-CURRENCIES right inside their "client" (which is really just a website that you are relying on to keep your "funds").
People trade money for products, services and other types of money. Am I to believe that Ripple falls under the category of "product" or "service"...?
Another question, if the devs for any of the other coins just gave up and quit tomorrow then somebody else could pick up where they left off (or not) and people would still have access to all their coins.
If the owners of Ripple.com decide to stop paying for their domain or web hosting, what happens to your thousands of XRPs...?