I think Namecoin is the perfect solution for aliases because it relies on no external server (no dns server, no forced external service, etc), benefits from the blockchain advantages and would be very easy to add into bitcoin.
If it were to be added to Bitcoin then it would have to go through the BIP process which doesn't seem easy to me, but I understand that you meant it would be easy from a programming standpoint. I think it would be much easier to implement it first in Namecoin as a proof of concept. Can you do this?