The spec, as described in what's linked above, first tests the connection to see what kind of current the cabling can handle. The peak current delivered is 5A, which I find pretty high for USB since most jacks I've seen are rated for 2A or less. The voltage increase (from 5V up to 12 or 20) gives you a substantial power transfer increase without a substantial increase in resistive losses (which would be based more on current throughput). Sure you'd need a solid cable to run 100W but a "typical" cable could probably handle the 18W through 60W profiles without a lot of trouble. A fully-USB 60W pod miner would be pretty smexy.
I don't disagree about that. A pod that had power specs around that would be very nice. Espically if you could do lets say 10 of them on a hub. Would be a great thing for miners (assuming price is not horrible for hubs, and new gear that are up to spec to handle it).
I don't see this moving fast though. Consumer gear just does not need near this in most cases. Most people will be using keyboards, mice, usb drives, etc. Us miners sadly make up a small section of market.