These are all very good points and I wish I had more to add to the methodology/concerns side of the conversation.
On the user retention side of things, the idea of being able to verify proactively, even if the goal isn't anonymity, does seem very important. Especially with intro posts commonly not being first posts any longer. While I understand exactly where the community members are coming from when asking others to verify, being burned countless times has made the way it's sometimes being asked somewhat harsh, even when not intended. This easily start a new user off on the wrong foot.
I've personally worked with users in the steemprentice group on getting them verified in a manner that the community and the user are comfortable with. Having a service to direct them to when some degree of anonymity is desired takes a sometimes time consuming task off my, and I'm sure others, plate.
While I'm excited to see how the dev teams implements verification in the future, in my eyes we can't just wait for that, especially considering a week on Steemit feels like a month. Personally I'm all for groups finding intermediate (even if imperfect) solutions to implement and refine. If someone finds it's inadequate and makes a better one...all the better for the community.
In my opinion Steemit NEEDS such imperfect solutions; Robinhood Whale, Project Curie, MinnowsUnite, SteemSquad, Steemprentice, ProjectNewbie...all mid term solutions that in many's eyes are necessary to deal with where the site is right now, while we wait for the long term solution of the dev team.