When you get down to it news reports saying "hackers try to DoS attack Bitcoin network, Bitcoin running a bit slow, counter-measures are being deployed, no coins lost" are far less damaging to credibility than "thousands lose their Bitcoins due to new sophisticated malware attack"
Exactly.My priorities are:
+ Network Security
+ Network Scalability
+ Network Stability
After those Big Three:
+ Wallet Security
Usability of the reference implementation is not on my priority list. I believe the vast majority of users will (if they aren't already) use bitcoin via a web-based service or an app on their mobile phone.
RE: the bitcoin.org homepage: I think replacing the links to Bitcoin-Qt on the hompage with just a link to the clients page is a good idea. Somebody should get the consensus to do that and submit a pull request.