I've seen lots of "hooray referral system" posts like it's the new cure for cancer. I have the exact opposite thoughts about it. Before any pro-referral people post in opposition, let's define exactly what the referral system is. It's an artificial increase in transaction fees to subsidize the equivalent of a bunch of Avon ladies.
Artificially increasing transaction fees is the last thing you would ever want to do in a cryptocurrency. One of Bitcoin's main selling points was low transaction fees. Now people are suddenly pretending like transaction fees don't matter. Sure, you may now end up with some additional people trying to spread Bitshares, but most people view cryptocurrency as a zero sum game where the act of using it is just making someone else rich at their own expense. This isn't far from the truth since any currency that exists whether it's fiat, gold, or crypto is all a pyramid scheme in nature.
Dan talks about how he doesn't like coercion, but the referral system obviously is where you're trying to swoop up people under your influence into a system to enrich yourself. An example would be an employer forcing employees into Bitshares as a payment processor. The employee now has to pay some arbitrary fee to become "a member" or pay large transaction fees instead. Currency doesn't need any more pyramid scheme aspects than it already has. Besides the fact that it's philosophically an abomination, it makes Bitshares less competitive in the free market vs other coins that will have lower fees.
Unless Bitshares became huge, it's not like many people are even going to pay the member fee anyway. It just drives people to other coins due to big transaction fees. If Bitshares became world reserve currency, probably everyone on earth would pay it, but the only function it serves then is an additional pyramid scheme aspect on top of the already pyramid nature of all currencies. Whether you're trying to make a profitable business or a more "fair" world, it's probably bad on both fronts.