As a(nother) user, I have been very pleased to see unicode-complete fonts gradually make the use of images for non-roman orthography gradually disappear. When I see non-English text on a page, greek letters, or simple expressions with super- and sub-scripts, I can generally highlight, style, and copy-and-paste it. This is a huge win.
I would hope that the *long term* direction of math is in the same direction, even if *short term* some users would like to see better image-based renders. --scott