Having lived and flown in Saudi, I can certainly agree on all that has been said so far. KSA has without doubt the potential to be a Middle Eastern superpower, and a key player on the world stage through it's shear influance and economic might.
However, the cultural and sociological issues thay have are extremly significant hurdles, and these will need to be addressed first. It will take a serious push for change, which will always be held back buy the more conservtive Saudis.
I think that a positive change is happening within Saudi Arabia but it will be an excrutiatingly slow process, and will have a timeline measured in several decades at least.