One nice thing about an ID is that I can leave it in my pocket if I don't want to identify myself. That's much harder to do with biometric identity.
I'm absolutely on the side of wanting to come up with those as yet unknown solutions, and I abhor all of the people who say "well just don't be doing anything illegal and then it won't matter!" I'm suggesting a fundamental shift in the underlying societal zeitgeist which, I realize, is a huge stretch and a bit of a pipe dream, but I can still hope.
To clarify- I'm NOT saying it shouldn't be regulated, and I'm NOT saying we need to move to some sort of post-privacy utopia, I am saying "Gee it'd be nice if we moved past the hand wringing and started coming up with ways to use this technology in beneficial ways.)