BTW, thank you OP for this thread.  It's a great discussion and relatively balanced opinions. 

Let me sum up the good, bad, and neutral, from my perspective.

Bad:
Close source for the time being
Not enough gateways

Neutral:
OpenCoin is using half of the native currency, XRP, to develop it.  (they needed something to attract investors and talent. Bitcoin couldn't do this)

Good:
Consensus > Proof-of-work.  Read up, it's the best feature.
Use any currency to buy something in any currency
Best payment system to date
Decentralized exchange
Ultra fast transactions; much faster than bitcoin
True microtransactions are possible
Incredibly scalable. No need to worry about the network collapsing under the pressure of the level of transactions Visa does per hour.