Any mission critical I/O is going to need support for:
atomic transactions
read/write verification
high level of availability
dataloss recovery
backups
These benefits have not been brought to Bitcoin by the choice of using a database to hold the wallet. While I agree that a real database system should be used for a mission critical database, I don't regard a bitcoin wallet as a database. I see it as a document, like an excel spreadsheet. Using a database engine for a bitcoin wallet to me is as ridiculous as using a power drill screwdriver to take apart a pocket watch.
In my view, the wallet (containing keypairs) should totally be separate from the file that contains the transaction history. You don't use your real wallet to keep all of your receipts for everything you bought since you were twelve, neither should Bitcoin do the same.
Atomic transactions: The wallet should be nothing more than a repository of keypairs, so the only transaction that should ever need to take place is the occasional topping up of the keypool, and perhaps saving labels attached to addresses. (For example, a keypool created with 500 keypairs, and topped back up to 500 when the reserve reaches 100, would make transactions and/or modification of the wallet happen so rarely that it would hardly be inefficient to achieve atomicity simply by writing a brand new file, swapping it with the old one via renaming, and then deleting the old one, as though it were a document.
Read/write verification: Nothing unique to a database - if verification is needed, this is easy to code in the client. Write file, close file, read file, verify file (or hash).
High level of availability: How does bdb increase availability as compared to say a flat xml file? If anything, it has hindered it, judging by the number of people who have gotten "critical DB errors" and lost access to their wallet.
Data loss recovery: If anything, people have lost more wallets as a result of bdb than have ever gained from it. At least with XML you can manually hack together in a text editor. bdb, no way.
Backups: Another place where bdb has offered no benefit, and the unusual placement (especially on Windows clients, as compared to the typical Windows user) has made backups difficult for the average user. Rather, the client should treat a wallet like a document, the same way Microsoft Word treats a .doc file as a document, where a user can back it up the same way they'd back up a letter, such as by clicking File - Save As - and then choosing removable media as the destination for the file, or by dragging a copy out of their Documents folder and onto their flash drive etc.