While I've not done a deep dive on the topic, I think the idea of covenants is an interesting one. The contention with this seems to be primarily around activation method, namely in trying to do a user activated soft fork out the gate rather than attempting to go the core route.

In the end, I think the debate around activation methods will be healthy and help us learn/be better in the future. I guess what I'm saying is that... this too, is good for Bitcoin.