I think that devcon did agree to a level of configurability. I personally really wouldn't object to letting the short press be semi-configurable (as long as it's a quite limited list of what it can do, such as that playlist/insert option, or most of the options in the main menu).
But my personal preference is what was just described above: Long for the record screen (I really don't think a long press is 'inconvenient' or 'difficult') and short doing the playlist viewer / insert depending on screen.
