If you really think about all this anonymity issue with all the current altcoins, it's only ever going to be anonymous if you never ever exchange your altcoins into fiat. The way it is now, if I want to buy something from any of the retail locations using an altcoin, or a BTC for that matter, it is pretty much as anonymous as it's going to get, other than the ship to address you're going to have to supply to get your purchase.
If there was total anonymity regarding trading/buying of altcoins or BTC, when it came time to exchange it for Fiat, your anonymity will be lost, as there is no exchanges that will exchange altcoins or BTC for Fiat, without you providing verification of your identity.
These current altcoins and all the hype about anonymity is just that...hype...trying to garner the BTC from people who do not understand the facts behind altcoins and BTC.
If we as Mintcoin holders, or even any altcoin holder truly want any of these coins to succeed as a true and viable currency, then we have to get them accepted by much more than just a few online retailers.
Have a look at
http://keepod.org/ this is a very interesting concept, and they have already crowdfunded over 1.5 Million dollars to create these USB drives that are going to be given out all over Africa. It is an Android based device and will most likely be VERY BIG. There is already talk of a Bitcoin wallet being included with each one, as well as a small amount of BTC included as well. Think of the exposure as well as the real life use, Mintcoin would get if it also had an Android wallet included with each of these USB devices, and also some Mintcoins.
If the developer were to contact Keepod.org and say he would contribute 100 to 200 MILLION of the premine to this, then there would be a real good increase in real world usage of Mintcoin, as the people in Africa that were given the USB device with a Mintcoin Android wallet loaded up with a fair amount of coins, would most definitely begin to use them as a true and viable currency amongst themselves, and this would get real world attention.
I think that the keepod is a great idea, but this is definitely one that the devs need to step in on, and the mintcoin fund is something that lends credibility to Mint for doing something like this.
I agree with you that anon is not the way to go with mint - I think that it's better to focus on getting retailers in involved, and on the charitable/eco aspects of the coin. Associating mint with anonymous transactions and darksend etc would not help with that