Gordon:
Just a small quibble David: when you say "the IANA" decided, it gives the impression that an august group of people like the IESG took action.
I certainly would not intend to, nor do I think I did, give the impression that a group like the IESG took action. One of the advantages (and arguable disadvantages) of the current registry system is a lack of bureaucratic overhead of the type you thought I was implying.
In reality "the IANA" is but a SINGLE person - John Postel.
Actually, it is 2 people, Jon Postel and Joyce Reynolds. However, note that the IANA is responsible to the IAB in the great Internet organzation chart in the sky.
If some people are upset I suspect it might be because the power to make such a decision is vested in the hands of ONE person rather than in a group.
My impression is that people are concerned that an organization with no track record and no customers (at this time) was able to obtain a highly coveted large block of space. Further, some people are concerned with the allocation of a subnet of a class A where an equivalently sized block in the class C space would have seemed appropriate. My suggestion to people who feel this way would be to publish an RFC or BCP offering advice to the IANA (as was done with RFC 1814) describing the policies they would like implemented. Regards, -drc