I have no idea what point you are attempting to make.
Do you believe the solutions we have today are decent enough and cannot be improved further? I wish handling files was so simple that even those you call “non power-users” (i.e. pretty much everyone) could work with versioned files.
"I wish handling files was so simple that even those you call “non power-users” (i.e. pretty much everyone) could work with versioned files."
We have that already, it's called persistent undo and/or save as. Stunningly, a versioning system designed for the technologically illiterate doesn't measure up to one designed for coders.
Auto-save is a separate issue, but we have that as well...
Do you believe the solutions we have today are decent enough and cannot be improved further? I wish handling files was so simple that even those you call “non power-users” (i.e. pretty much everyone) could work with versioned files.
Note that I am neither saying it's easy nor that it is appropriate for every program. But it is definitely possible: http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/auto-save.html