Everybody appears to have noble ideas and one could find valid points from either side of the argument/debate.
From my point of view it doesn't matter what they decide to build, as the economic climate is in dire straights and likely to remain so for quite a long time nobody will able to buy them anyway.
Grand designs of any sort would be nice.
Pity we don't appear to have the ability to produce them.
"Is this bad news for architecture?"
Bad news for some architects I'm sure.
While I'm sympathetic towards the artistic desire to have freedom of expression so much of what is lauded today is despised tomorrow together with that which was never lauded in the first place.
Much of what I see, once I have overcome the feeling of desperate design for the sake of it, fills me with a concern for future maintenance costs.