I would like to point out some things why Bitcoin and especially Gavin Andresen is so interesting:
1. Gavin is a real forward thinking entrepreneur/hacker who is actually not just trying to make headlines to get venture funded, but is actually quietly building infrastructure for his own startup.
2. If his startup fails, we still get the infrastructure (Bitcoin), public gets enormous value even when/if his startup is dead. Thats quite alot of differrence from startups like cuil or colour, where they burn money (value) and almost nothing is left after the failure, except for cautionary tale how not to do things.
3. Bitcoin (if successfull) brings alot competition to financial sector, and if it gains any significant traction it could change the monopolistic practices of currencies issued by nation states.