I have noticed owning both ASIC and GPU rigs that the GPU tend to hold their own in terms of profitability per day whereas the ASIC's tend to only go down. 

The ASIC's are super easy to set up and i haven't had to troubleshoot them at all in months where there was a big learning curve for GPU's and a lot of troubleshooting. 
From only that perspective, the ASIC's can be easy for individuals to set up and run in a corner of their house. 

However, the centralization of ASIC's is frustrating because when the difficulty rises from a new operation going live profitability is affected greatly in a short amount of time. 

I have been mining ETH solo and the time frame hasn't really changed much with the difficulty.    Mining LTC has gotten much more difficult over the past few months to where only with a massive price increase would it be profitable to buy another one and be ROI by the end of the year. 

ASIC's have their place, however bitmain is something akin to amazon.  While it is super easy to shop and watch and sell and read and etc. on amazon.   What are the future setbacks that havent been considered. 

Bitmain has the market cornered and if I were them I would be doing the same thing.  That's called business and they have the cash flow to do what they want. 

However, what are their implications for the space in the future.   They are out-competing competitors  (Obelisk is one)

I don't have any answers to this, but it isn't about GPU vs. ASIC.  It is about centralization vs. decentralization. That should be the conversation, which should be balanced. 

The ethics of cryptocurrency need to be considered as well, not just the profitability.

My 2 doge.