(note: i'm still not speaking for arin.)
...but i really do think of 2001:4f8::/32 as PI, even though ISC is neither an IX nor a rootserver. (f-root has its own /48, which is something else.)
So you're claiming that any IPv6 PI applicant without your political connections to the IESG, ARIN, IANA, etc. can get a /32?
your question is interesting for several reasons. for one thing, most present and past (and probably future) members of iesg try to stay as far away from me as possible. not that iesg enters into this, or iana. and while i was recently elected to the arin board, i have no historical "political" relationship to arin at all. but if i did, it wouldn't matter. arin has policies, which are ultimately set by its members, and arin has auditors. nothing will ever be given out by arin as part of a secret-handshake deal. if isc hadn't qualified for the ipv6 /32 we now use, then arin would not have allocated/assigned/??? it to us. the only way in which my special relationship with some arin staffers has ever helped me is when i'm doing something the wrong way they have taken me aside and explained my errors to me, for which i am grateful. (presumably, others "less well connected" just get back a form letter.)
I don't know exactly how many subnets/hosts ISC has, but I seriously doubt ISC could even get a PI /48 if you weren't buddies with the folks making allocation decisions.
i think you're wrong. and as a member-elect of arin's board, i hope you're wrong. because as a public benefit corporation, arin can't act that way, and the kind of favoritism you're describing is exactly the kind of corruption that auditors are trained to look for.
Most companies do not have the advantages you apparently take for granted;
on the contrary, i think that they do (or that i don't).
the IETF thus far has been adamant that only ISPs will get PI space,
ietf doesn't decide. ietf recommends. the members of the RIR's decide.
no matter how big an end-user site may be, exceptions for the IETF/IANA leadership's employers notwithstanding.
want to back up that statement? apply for an ipv6 prefix from arin, and let us (all of nanog) know how it goes. -- Paul Vixie