It seems that if a redesign were to be done by any of those looking at that, a second pic might be the ticket. If a second pic were put on the board so that when the jumper is set, it would read the SD card, look for a firmware.hex, and load that into the primary pic, the update process could be done with no cable. I assume that this could be done, and as well as it is not going to be done in the near future. Just an idea for when the inevitable Minimig V2 comes out.
I know, "How are we going to update the programer pic?" Well, we either program it with the primary pic, OR we leave the serial option, but realize that a simple, zero UI, single purpose program is just not nearly as likely to need updates as a complicated, UI enabled, multipurpose program.
Actually, the ideal thing would be to see a small carrier board that could plug into the existing pick socket to accomplish this.
Also, and more importantly...
The new Boot Sequence looks Awesome!!! Very professional!