My desire for OAuth on Twitter is simple. As a developer of twitter-related utilities, I don't want to store my user's twitter credentials. As has been stated in this thread, even asking for those credentials is creating bad habits amongst Twitter's user base. I would never store a user's password for MY site in cleartext, yet the current API requires me to retrieve an unencrypted credential for twitter access.
OAuth won't solve identity security issues. I'm not hoping to fix Twitter's security - just my own practices. The current pressure Twitter is getting is obviously from users who have unrealistic expectations about what a new credential system will mean. But, in spite of the uninformed panic, there really is an urgent need for this.
