I believe DP checks have been more on the slow-down for the fact that if it's too hard-core to the book, players would be getting them almost constantly, and DMs wouldn't be able to put any well-thought-out curses like they have been lately, nor would they be able to monitor everything. Back when the DPs were getting released, everyone around me who talked about them mentioned they were already in the 3-4 stages. At this time, it seems like there's more people in the 1-2 stages than the higher ones. Then again, I'm not a DM so I don't know the actual statistics.
But that's enough of me going off-topic, is there really anything else to bring up on this discussion that wasn't already repeated several times?