Oops, sorry, I see the subject line changed. This is what I get for working down the thread list top to bottom :)
I think the best path forward now is to finish off getblocktemplate support in the various tools so it's possible to pool for payout purposes without giving up control of block creation modulo the coinbase. Combined with the recent sipa performance enhancing goodness, it would hopefully persuade some non-trivial chunk of hashpower to go back to running their own node and start the process of turning pools merely into payout trackers rather than block selectors.