What is the different between running your own bitcoin server? There I have full control, and this can be set up very easily. I then use SSH to secure my connection. Running servers can be automated much better than it is done today. One could run one's own electrum server with the click of a mouse.
And what is the point of running your own electrum server? Why not just running the full Bitcoin-Qt then? Think of this project more like a DNS for bitcoin addresses. The server doesn't directly handle any bitcoins at all, it's just a communication/routing layer between clients for building higher level sevices on top of it. That's the whole point of this, convenience through the use of memorizable "email" (xmpp) addresses and to transparently enabling all the complex contract scheme that exist with Bitcoin. It's primarily a payment protocol and in fact can be implemented on every Bitcoin client including electrum.
Edit:
What is especially great with the "email" thing is that one can print it on a magazine or a Ads and each user can send payment with an invoice number attached or even join a complete order form with his payment. The server generate a unique Bitcoin address automatically at each client's request and reroute the payment information on the merchant's client software.