Sorry I'm a bit late in responding, but I wanted to congratulate you on writing such a fine article and wanted to  encourage others to read it.

You touch upon Postel's concept of stewardship. Milton had a wonderful paper last year on the concept as related to i.p. addresses, stewardship as a concept but also it's failings as conveniently applied to the current i.g. process: http://www.cyberdialogue.citizenlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/2012papers/CyberDialogue2012_Mueller.pdf . That stewardship may be falsely applied, though,  does not diminish it conceptual appeal.

The four requirements you mention that must 'apply always, to all stakeholders, in every corner of the Internet, and in every circumstance' : responsibilities, service, transparency and accountability seem to be self evident but sadly are not always applied. As ICANN becomes more, as Wolfgang taught me, about "power and money" it seems to me that "volunteerism" in some quarters has turned in some ways to careerism and billable hours. Transparency is for the other guys, not us, and accountability...well, we actually have some constituencies with secret membership lists. Secret accountability? Hmmm...and then we have the Board and staff.

Thanks, Roy, for reminding us what this is supposed to be all about. Required reading for those involved in the process.

Ed