Nice post, I agree that the OpenID user experience leaves a lot to be desired.

There is progress being made, sites like Clickpass and applications like OpenID browser plugins are doing alot to improve usability. Also regarding URLs there is a new site and spec out that will let you use emails addresses as an OpenID. More info on emailtoid and EAUT is here: http://blog.vidoop.com/archives/139

Cheers,
Kevin