It may (will) undermine hashing distribution, and eventually destroy bitcoin.
"Mining is for an elite" = security and anonymity has been compromised.
Unless people start paying transaction fees asap.
Yes this is a fear, if only a small number of users can ultimately mine. Isn't that one of the strengths of BTC, that there are many miners? I bet this has been discussed in a different forum, ppl might be thinking it's so far away it can be changed in the future.