Dynamic Range Really isn't as important as you are lead to believe.

Lovely images. All I've photographed with my telescope is the sun for a uni project. Keep on meaning to try something else.

You say though that people don't normally have a use for such large dynamic range. I can personally think of plenty of situations that people go though day to day where it would be helpful. The most obvious is shooting into a bright sunset. Also trying to shoot in a dark forest without getting horrible blown skies and the thin brances just dissapearing into the whiteness is almost impossible in a single exposure with todays digital cameras. A FF might just be able to do it with alot of pusing/pulling but I imagine even that would start to shot more noise than is desirable in a shot with such fine detail.

Or what about the wonderfully tourist shots inside churches. Especially the other european ones which are often quite dark inside, yet have brilliant glowing stain glass windows. Try getting any detail inside whilst showing the beauty of the window.

I personally hope camera companies keep striving for higher dynamic range. A dynamic range race sure is better than a MP race.