In reply to Christee.

What is essential in this discussion is that there are different kinds of users of Wordpress. And for each of those, a different kind of editing experience is better. That is the challenge.

For example, you can have non-tech content editors. Say the client you build the wordpress website for. For him/her, the current backend interface, even though it's relatively well-designed and simple compared to other CMS's, can be quite complex. So for someone like that, front-end editing could be a good solution. You as the developer build the site, create some templates, make certain portions of the pages editable, and the client just has to login, browse his/her website and click "Edit this page" to change some text, on the front-end.

For more technical developers working with wordpress, such a front-end editing would be of little use, since he/she wants direct access to all more advanced features (meta-boxes, other sections of the admin, etc).

And so on.