Tim-
There is no sense in giving developers administrative power.
I tend to agree, although I think it's not a matter of ability (I do not share the "programmers are good at this, not at that" belief; programmers are human beings like anyone else) but a matter of scalability. We can't make everyone a developer for security reasons. Encapsulating community functions like desysopping in the "bureaucrat" flag seems like the most reasonable way forward to me.
That of course does not address the question what these bureaucrats are *allowed* to do.
Regards,
Erik