if gpu makers do get into the game, there wont really be any difference to the end result of hashrate monopoly's. your worse off with gpu makers getting into crypto mining then having asic companys get involved.
I wouldn't put i past ASIC makers to be able to get effectively into this n factor increase market, like i said it's all about how money there is in it...especially for adapative nfactor, as it is really is just a small evolution. Fast memory controllers isn't a walk in the park though.. some GPU businesses have lost millions due to it. It's tricky stuff, not everyone will have the mojo to do it.. even if they have a 25nm chip fab in their home..
Algos are evolving, adaptive-nfactor is a small evolution on that front. I would not put it past the abilities of the community , if we really wanted to.. design an algo that is very specific to the GPUs. Maybe run your hash through some 3d tesallation of the model of that monster you just illed in quake.. and then back through an h264 encoder... or... something...
