I think you've nailed it here Bytemaster - Most of the cloud miners I deal with have been selling PTS to fund ongoing mining operations, if you force them to not churn onto the market with a 6 month maturity period you chase out anyone who isn't willing to have a long time horizon. I wouldn't buy cloud computing, but I would have my desktop mining in the background.
I wish there was a way for mining to not be a lottery but rather a process that everyone who participates is rewarded for per their contribution. We do that now, but it's like a game of bingo when it should be more like renting your computer by the hour to the needs of the protocol. Solo mining and distribution that makes people happy are flatly at odds with mass adoption, so while the incentives line up all over this beast here they very much do not - For each new person who I convince to mine makes it that much harder for me to find a block, and past a certain point, say a million solo miners, it seems like an impossibility for everyone to find a block so you limit your potential success.