I agree that exchanging is the biggest problem and bottleneck currently. I am not sure if it has to do with the price, I think that is another issue.
The main problem is the difficulty of exchange, from my personal experience at least. If you do it online you have to go through verification because of your bank and fraud. So then again, it all comes down to the banks plus the fees they impose on transactions. Also, as a recent topic here in bitointalk claimed if you withdraw to your account over 1000€ you will get flagged. And there are many more issues, all coming down to exchange, trust, verification and banking.
A true bitcoin currency won't exist until I can simply exchange my fiat to BTC whenever I want, without having to wait 5 days of bank working days, provide 2 pieces of proof of residence, my ID etc. Simplicity is needed.
The problem is not on the banks, it is the government officials who set up this anti-money laundering/terrorist financing, know your customer law and applied it to financial institutions like exchanges and banks (banks are essentially an exchange)
Regulators put a heavy fine on those institutions who does not follow this law. If anyone can trade bitcoin like buying grocery, there will be many criminals use bitcoin to launder money (money comes from hacked bank account, cheated victim, smuggling, drug dealing...), and once money enter bitcoin, it is not traceable anymore(at least beyond the current ability of law enforcement due to no regulatory framework at all on blockchain), so it is very difficult to reverse the loss like in fiat money system (In fact the law enforcements are more interested in reversing the loss, capture the criminal is less important since they never cease to exist)
So far the best practice is to treat it like cash, and limit each customers daily transaction volume like in an ATM