Really good post - just a note from myself - I've had to remove my shoes for screening many times while flying out from my native country(Poland) and that wasn't even to the US,but to other EU countries. So this is not something that only TSA does.
(Really, this has an impact - many shoes contain some metal reinforcements that beep at the detector.)
(I've also been asked to take off the shoes for screening, inside EU, without any detector issues - I suppose the security people have to take in a quota of white middle-aged and old men and women, in order to avoid accusations of racial, age and gender profiling.)
The whole TSA uproar is actually more of a reflection of the anti-government, libertarian, personal rights above community rights attitude that uniquely exists within many Americans.
Source: me. I fly a lot too.