I've had similar thoughts but I also wonder if it is just not wanting to do anything to derail Bitcoin. I also don't see coins like Namecoin making huge leaps and bounds and I'm scratching my head trying to understand why that is.
although namecoin is good in concept. its not like google chrome, firefox, internet explorer, etc have the namecoin dns lookup installed by default. thus average joe blogs cant simply type in a .bit address
if average joe could go to a .bit address without needed to mess with settings, or atleast without searching for where to find what the settings changes that were needed are. then namecoin would have more promise.
but because it involves people knowing that a dot bit address is part of namecoin and then having to search 'namecoin dns settings' makes it a hindrance. in 99% of cases if someone handed a stranger a dot bit address, the person will just see a blank page and simply move on with their lives finding a dot com address.
would you honestly give a stranger a web address on your business card and then say, "oh by the way to get to my site you need to go to tools-> settings-> blah blah blah" .. um no, very unprofessional.
unless Firefox chrome IE Oprah etc all have namecoin dns lookup in their default listing without users needing to do anything, namecoin would just remain a good concept and not a useful tool
yeah but thats not a reason to discount/discredit namecoin. Hopefully those default settings will change and .bit gets easier.
Btw, I try not to use Google Chrome. Google has too much centralized power already. This is a perfect example of
why we shouldn't be giving them any more power by using their browser. Also, chrome is probably reporting
every page you visit back to Google.