If BTC-e and a baby were in a burning building, and you could only save one of them, which would you save? What if the baby grew up to be Hitler!?

You could not have expected any serious response after a post like that, but… I believe the answer is that there are enough dumb, greedy people to supply the fraudsters and incompetent exchange operators forever.

Just hop over to Service Discussion to see threads where people send money that they cannot afford to lose to fraudsters, even after being warned they are fraudsters, and then send even more on request of the fraudster.

There isn't a lot you can do about that.

If bitcoin gains mainstream acceptance then I think a lot of the services involved will inevitably have to up their game; it will be harder to operate an outright scam, and authorities will investigate scams as seriously as they do PayPal and credit card fraud (i.e. hardly at all: it's mostly based on the merchant paying for it all).

It will of course always be possible to send btc and fiat directly to shady persons and get ripped off. The lack of any reversal ability in bitcoin will ensure this stays a factor. But in a world of mainstream acceptance I would expect that the average person would not be so interested in trying to engage in risky transactions in the first place. They'll just be dealing with the companies and brands they normally deal with. The lack of any huge volatility in the price will help keep greedy people away.

So I think on an individual level you need to be smart of course to operate in these early times, but on a general level it just needs greater acceptance.