XFS: the filesystem of the future?

IIRC Dave addressed a similar question about shrink in the talk, with something like "datasets generally gets bigger, not smaller" and when pressed, suggested that one should (could?) instead use thin provisioning to manage dynamically changing space requirements.

As you point out, there is value to familiarity, but it's also worth poking at the familiar now and then, to see if that familiarity is enough to warrant automatic selection...