I did look at it a while back, but you are right that I haven't followed it closely enough to understand it yet.
But, I think my general point still stands.
If confidential transactions are good enough and give some level of privacy, then it makes the arguments for a complete anon coin less attractive, except for edge cases.
Agree about "less" attractive. Disagree that all that is remaining is "edge cases".
Edge cases when seen on a global basis might be worth quite a bit
Okay I don't necessarily disagree if stated that way.
A broader comment:
There is a certain "academic approach" in Bitcoin from people like Adam Back (an actual academic in a sense) and Greg Maxwell that you have to appreciate. It involves developing small advancements (or small wins if you prefer that phrase) that are extremely well supported with research and mathematics, and is often focused on advancing knowledge in ways that won't even ever be deployed on a large scale.
That is very different from a more commercial approach that often tries to deliver a "solution" to "customers", but often delivers stuff that isn't very well supported or sound, and almost inevitably becomes obsolete and ultimately outcompeted or leapfrogged by some other commercial product.
Monero, by the way, has a somewhat intermediate approach (that is my observation and opinion, not a statement of policy).