However, it has 5x or greater risk of an algo being compromised mathematically (groestl, qubit and skein are still somewhat experimental, right?)...
Although I suppose the coin could be hardforked if such an event occurred?
I am not a dev, but I suppose yeah, if any algo is compromised, it can be removed completely or replaced with a different algo. I read in their Announcement thread that they plan to add another independent CPU-only algo to the mix. Thus a hard fork is possible, and new algos can be added/old ones removed like plugins. On the other hand, if sha256 or scrypt is ever compromised, then sha256-only or scrypt-only coins are under danger, because they don't have other algos to fall back on to keep the network running.
But let's wait for devs to clarify, we're only guessing.