I am afraid you won’t stop the big pixel chase it sells cameras, its bigger so its got to be better is the thinking and while it works manufacturers aren’t going to try and change that.
The fact that many don’t have prints made these days and simply view on the computer, when they do they are unlikely to print larger than 5x7 it escapes most people they don’t need these 8-10 million pix cameras. This is down to knowledge and most snappers get that from the manufacturers who tell them more is better.
If the camera processors on a 12 millions pix camera were driving 6 million pix look at the speed gain we would get.

From a personal point of view you can’t beat a high quality print, for me that’s the magic of photography. I get that from my 10D with its 6 million pixels, it was pronounced the best in its class three years ago, I accept a lot of advancement has taken place and further improvements made, but the camera remains as good today as it was at launch.
One of the comments I get from my photographic friends is how high my print quality is, that speaks for itself.

In the future I plan on buying another camera probably the 30D ‘s successor and I bet it will be 10 or 12 million pix.(I’m probably as bad as the rest) It will be interesting to see if there is a quality improvement.

As a matter of interest when that day comes I shall be having the 10D converted for Infrared.

Patrick