Without GUI, adoption will remain sluggish. With sluggish adoption, not only will price be pressured, but more importantly - and this is a coin killer - the emission will run its course to the point that XMR will considered to be a "community premine" despite all our good heroic efforts.
Since changing the emission also can be considered to be a premine of sorts, we are between a rock and a hard place with (yet) no solutions that would have the unanimous support of everybody.
I can also be wrong concerning the future perception of "community premine".
Difficult situation indeed.. I think that XMR is not yet ready for increased adoption, as there are still issues with the anonymity, which is the most fundamental offering.
Releasing a GUI without solving those issues will just lure unsuspecting users into using it carelessly, which might actually put people in danger.
Maybe we can change the emission such that it will continue it's fast pace for a longer period?