I don't think Flandry is being straightforward with his concerns. I doubt he is worried about WRT affecting battery life. Even if it was shown that WRT had a positive effect on battery life, he would still be unhappy with WRT. My guess is that he is worried that the nature and philosophy of the phone will shift from a Linux hacker & power user device, to a treat-the-user-like-a-baby iPhone-clone.

I don't share those concerns and neither would the many, many people whose lives could be improved (or at least, made a little more fun) by using a device with those abilities out-of-the-box.

That's not to say I don't have my concerns. I am quite disappointed to see that WRT will use webkit rather than gecko (on philosophical grounds). So, out of curiosity, why was webkit chosen?