The DNT header is to be implemented by website developers (and they have nothing to gain by doing it). I understand that Google is better off without implementing this header, but I don't really think it would change anything if Chrome had it.
I agree on the cookies issue, though. Things like "Allow local data to be set (recommended)" make me kind of sad.
as someone working on sites that use the recent browser storage APIs, I very much prefer that to be the recommended setting. Much saner than cookies, and for some type of apps makes for a much better user experience as well
Notice that "allow local data to be set" and "block third party cookies" are not mutually exclusive settings in preferences...which is good, because they can be and tend to be used for very different purposes.
If you want to block all data from being stored, that's fine (and web APIs are great in that they are designed to be individually denied and let a page detect that they have been), but I definitely disagree that first party storage enabled by default (and even "recommended") is lamentable.
I agree on the cookies issue, though. Things like "Allow local data to be set (recommended)" make me kind of sad.