I agree; adding more links to an already-fragile and poorly-understood chain doesn’t make it better for anyone.

OpenID has serious usability issues and I also agree that solving these should be foremost, not least for the reasons you’ve outlined in your post and Tim mentions (about trying to explain the damnable thing) to an average user.

I’ve been trying to use OpenID on a few supporting websites, even updating the domain records of my personal website to be coupled with my OpenID identity, and it’s just an utter chore every time.

OpenID isn’t a “smart” solution: it’s a flabby, inarticulate and trudging load of extra user baggage. No thanks.