[krivx]

>The FPGA also lacks an open-source (or even shared-source) toolchain,

I think this point is overstated. FPGAs are not microprocessors. I don't think an OSS toolchain would be anywhere near as beneficial as something like gcc. It would be nice to have but it's hard to think of any problems specific to programmable logic that this would address.

What would help is toolsets with less friction and less of an entry barrier.

[ycmbntrthrwaway]

Implementing your own routing algorithms, running these procedures in parallel on a cluster (something like distcc) and things like that would really benefit FPGA industry. The area is full of research problems, but only Xilinx progarammers and a few other companies are allowed to do research in this area and try their ideas. Well, some file formats are open (xdl/ncd files), but you have to reimplement everything from scratch.