Hi Jeff! Just chiming in here to say thank you for the mention. I'm glad the article helped. I do really hope Post Formats can take off in the WordPress community, in one form or another. They're obviously not going to be for everyone, but I think they are under utilized as a feature in general and lost their lime light a little too soon. I hope we can start giving them more of a chance. I think it's mainly our clients, or content producers, that will notice their difference.

The development debate is one thing, but I think we should think of how the users will be able to make use of them. The motive is more on the side of being able to spread content easier and faster, rather than to debate about how they should be developed (in my opinion anyway!). I think that's what most of us here are saying too. I don't care how they are made (plugin or not, as you identified), but I do see their potential to help bloggers, which is in line with what WordPress is all about anyway.