But who are you to say there is zero flexibility? Shouldn't the community decide?
I think you're misunderstanding. The implication is that if you rally enough support .. then go and fork the coin. It happened with QCN, and if you think there's enough support for it then by all means follow through. You may not have immediate dev support, but they may come either way
I support sticking with their decision. I worry that the distribution might be a bit on the fast side, actually I think most would agree on that; however, most also seem to be able to live with the decision given the downsides of changing that rule, for this coin, mid-game.
Edit: I'm only talking about the emission curve here, not the block time. I haven't yet formed enough of an opinion to throw total support at it. I would hope that the reward would scale with the block time, though .. in order to maintain the same emission .. regardless of the time that is settled on.
edit 2 : The absolute worst case scenario that can happen with this issue is that we don't achieve 100% penetration. To which I would say that perhaps, 100% isn't necessary. It's pure speculation to say that 100% penetration is needed. Consider Bytecoin, whose main audience is a closed community, if you take their word that they are who they say they are. Albeit we're not privy to it, it's an economy nonetheless. They have an exchange rate, described by their original picture of .001 BCN = .1 BTC. We see its value at a couple satoshis. Though this would fail a fungibility test, they still have an economy according to them .. and are doing just fine from the looks of it. Opposite this, if 100% is required .. then we've only extended the time in which it will be achieved.