I'd argue that in order to trust what's in your address bar, you have to have "verification": if you're not sure who's on the other end, you can't trust the address bar. Whether that knowledge comes from a PKI system like browsers use now or an SSH-style system is a separate issue.
I think you're talking more about someone hijacking a nameserver in that case. The vast majority of MitM attacks are on open networks between the client and the ISP, are they not?