The point I'm trying to make is that the malleability issue cannot be easily or quickly fixed, and the work-arounds have consequences themselves and take us a step-backwards in usability. This will all be resolved eventually, but in the meantime, we've presented the forum trolls with an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of troll food.
Years ago I recall the conversations about how safe zero conf transactions were for small amounts because "who would want to race attack for a soda from a vending machine?" While actual race attacks and double spends and all this are different attack vectors from this malleability issue, I remember thinking, "if there's a vulnerability someone will attack it." Because... humans.
But I figure Bitcoin is in beta. Bitcoin *is* high risk, still, and for some time yet. Folks much smarter than me are working to keep it strong. I'm confident devs'll work it out. And as "smart phones" became "just phones," the "smart wallets" you talked about in your post will just be regular wallets that account for all the security silliness. Eventually.
Usability is almost always sacrificed at the beginning stages of development. It's a can that keeps getting kicked down the road. The issue is that most developers seem to have a preternatural disdain for usability. They "just want it to work." This is rightly important, at first.
Seeing both sides of the code vs. art world, I believe it is usually because backend deveoplers work incredibly hard at the magic it takes to make highly functional software. Then, once it works smoothly, someone comes along and says, "yeah, interesting, but i won't use it because it looks like a child made it. It could use some panache. The buttons are too square. How about some gradients and such?"
The truth is that people can get by without an overly usable product, sometimes for a long while. Amazon was horrid for a while and even now isn't much to look at. If someone comes along with the same functionality plus better usability then the first to market may not survive. MySpace was a neat idea but a gargantuan mess, then Facebook came along which was a step up (and continues to improve). Awesome usability plus great functionality can change a marketplace.
