I really like your analogy, here in Central South Australia there are lots of isolated, heavily guarded, gold mines, where mining companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to extract Gold and Silver Copper and other minerals, I liken them to the ASIC miners for BTC., (btw, they provide lots of employent in the meantime, plus royalty cheques for the local landowners) every one benefits, including the economy.
Meantime there's old mate in Central Victoria, who makes a very nice living panning for Gold, and has done so for years, problem is, he's the only one that benefits, not even his family as he's a single bloke, I liken him to a GPU miner.
Reminds me of a movie: Oliver said "Please sir can I have bit more ?" ...
Tarnished Image - Bitcoin Promotion:* Anonymous: Fail, at best it's pseudo, but with current generation of exchanges even that's gone. (at least for masses)
* Decentralized: Fail, with pools the power ends up in hands of few ...
* Micro Transactions: Fail, with anti dust changes micro transaction will be unprofitable.
* Everyone can participate (vote): Fail, you need to buy specialized hardware to have a chance.
With every chance we had to improve some of these key benefits the exact opposite happened as a result key benefits are being removed one by one. Whats next ? I don't know ...