As a person who routinely uses XLRs to carry stereo headphone feeds with TRS converters on each end, I kind of like that there are only a few connectors that do different things. I have a pelican that's already heavy enough and adding more adapters to my kit doesn't sound great.

Once you know that just because you can fit a jack in something you can't rely on it not to have 48 volts across pins, you stop putting fingers in light sockets or hooking your laptop to XLR inputs using TS->XLR adapters.

Aren't there already a number of applications using canon connectors with digital? What's your opinion about AES/EBU using XLR? Or DMX over 3-pin xlr?