I'm perplexed at you how think a premine of 80% at release is only "marginally" worse than say Monero, which won't be 80% mined for about 4 years and which has only been mined about 4% so far. I don't know when you draw the line between early participants though. I kind of think that everyone involved with bitcoin now is an "early participant."
Well, for example, say you have a 100% "premine" coin, but most of it gets sold for a grand total of a few bitcoins.. and then sold again and again, gradually gaining value. Sure the person upfront at an "unfair" advantage but who cares if it was just to the tune of a couple of bitcoins? and if they put in the work to really create something original and innovative it's well earned. Something doesn't gain real sticky value except with trade, you can't premine 100% and then expect it to be magically valuable.
I actually agree with this nearly if not 100% (as well as what you wrote later), but this:
1. Contradicts somewhat your comments about how important it is to reduce rewards when the hash rate is low. If the value is only a few bitcoins, then it is fine for the reward in newcoins to be high. In fact I would argue that the simplest launch is often the best, because for the reasons you outline above, the very beginning doesn't matter all that much.
2. Argues against being the creator as anything with enormous inherent value or importance, since as you say, it is often what comes later that creates the "real" value (more than a few bitcoins). Thus I would argue we should dispense with the sanctimonious comments about the "original" developers being the most legitimate and "deserving" fork and if they screw up the release and the disappear and do zero work to try to build anything after the release.
My biggest objection, by the way, with premines (including this one) isn't their existance but:
1) the lack of a lockup or vesting, something that could actually be fixed fairly easily, which entirely agrees with your point that the value isn't necessarily in the inventing, it is in the building of something actually useful (and in the case of a digital currency that is far more than code). With no lockup it is too easy to pump-and-dump, and too hard for anyone outside the inner circle to discern true intentions.
2) The shady and often outright fraudulent actions that often surround them and try to hide them. This is not at all limited to this one, but this one is included.
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I'm not quite sure how to respond to this except to say that you may well be on the wrong thread. First of all, the designers of BCN don't even seem to be here at all unless it is in the form of some sock puppet (I even doubt that). Second, while the Monero thread has its share of speculators, pumpers and FUDsters (apparently on a mission from the DRK side), we actually have quite interesting technical discussions over there. The Boolberry thread does as well. I can't speak for the others.
Well that wasn't directed at you. Ignore my whining if you like. 
I'm just sad to see how short sighted people are sometimes, it isn't everyone. I'll probably show in the Monero thread once I've successfully mined a block there, hard to use it until I have some to play with. 
Post an address. There is a magic Monero fairy who likes to drop coins in random addresses that get posted.