Rainboe,
I agree.
Let them try.
I can't see a 200 lbs add-on to the nosewheels provide enough traction in all but the most ideal cases.
I can't see saving a few hundred pounds of taxy fuel as compensating for carrying the equivalent of another passenger or two across the Atlantic.
I'd like to see the sums.
But if we're talking 0.1% or so, the changes in procedures, the necessity to still have push-back trucks on standby, and all that, may well negate any advantages.
See you in 2010.