I love Simplify! Just added a new screenshot to http://inkscape.org/screenshots/index.php. With the new algorithm and acceleration it's really an essential design tool.
Fred: concerning "rotate&growth" of degenerate paths, I have an idea: can you add a check that would prevent it from doing any simplification on a subpath that contains only one node? That would stop it from growing indefinitely. I would do this myself but I only know how to get the number of nodes in the entire path, while this check must be done for each subpath (so that some subpaths can stop while others may still be simplifying).
Also, how difficult would it be to add an opposite operation, that would add _more_ nodes to a path with random displacement and disorientation, distorting the path? That would not only be a lot of fun, but a really useful design instrument as well.
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